Introduction
Knowledge provides a pathway through which humans can achieve immense possibilities. While this is a well-recognized fact, the role of social media in knowledge sharing is often underestimated. Social media empowers anyone online through an unobstructed flow of information. In the contemporary world, the imperative role that social media plays in influencing people’s emotions, impacting worldviews, and even culture cannot be ignored. Social media is a new medium that brings people together to connect, share ideas, seek advice, offer guidance, and even mobilize for a cause. This essay examines the relationship between social media and happiness, arguing that social media has contributed to increased happiness.
Social Media and Happiness
Through social media, communication barriers have been removed, creating decentralized communication channels and opening doors for everyone to have an equal voice. It is a media outlet that accommodates a broad range of formal, spontaneous, unscholarly, and scholarly writing projects. It has fostered collaboration and creativity, enabling groups with common interests, such as students, to work on group projects that require collaboration. Although many benefits accompany social media, it has also had a negative impact on our lives. Through its global reach, this has led to cultural erosion. Overall, these negative and positive effects consequently affect our happiness.
Happiness is the consequence of the satisfaction of desires, which entails satisfaction gained when the wants and needs of the heart are accomplished. The satisfaction achieved results in pleasure, which in turn leads to happiness. Every relationship plays a role in perfecting these actions of joy and happiness. Social media enables connection, and while like-minded people can form fruitful relationships, they can also achieve their goals together through group collaboration or work towards individual objectives. For example, through Facebook, people come together and co-found a business.
Happiness Revisited
When such a desire is fulfilled, happiness ensues. According to a Hungarian-American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Happiness just does not happen, or just arises from random chance or good fortune: it instead relies on how we interpret the good fortune (Csikszentmihalyi 683).” From this, she contends that fulfillment leads to happiness. The reader of “Happiness Revisited” can deduce that in a person’s life, the best moments are those in which they push themselves to ensure they achieve something challenging (Csikszentmihalyi 683).” Mihaly’s work confirms that achievement from social media interactions leads to happiness.
Grief in the Age of Facebook
The connectedness that social media offers contributes to life satisfaction by reducing loneliness. In remembrance of a loved one, social media enables visiting a “memorialized profile.” Elizabeth Stone, Author, Grief in The Age of Facebook. From this, the impact of social media in alleviating grief is evident. One can connect with a loved one even after their demise by visiting their social media handles and reliving moments from their life. This reduces grief, improves overall well-being, and fosters a sense of long-term happiness.
In “Grief in the Age of Facebook,” Elizabeth explains how the death of Casey, a student, opened her eyes to the possibilities of social media and how it helps one know their peers better (Stone 587). She explains Facebook’s role as a place of solace for grieving family and friends, which helps ease pain, bring relief, and gradually build happiness.
After Your Final Status Update
From Adam Ostrow’s TED talk, it can be inferred that social media relationships help bridge social ties and offer greater emotional and social investments. He confesses that “by the end of 2011, there will be nearly 1 billion people who actively utilize social media sites.” However, “one thing that all of them have in common is that they are going to die” (Ostrow 0:01-5). He starts with the last post that Derek, a science and technology journalist who died of cancer, wrote, requesting his family and friends to convert his blog into an archive after his death. He proceeds to explore the vast capabilities and potential that social media has, noting that YouTube uploads 48 hours of video each minute, Twitter receives 200 million tweets daily, and an average Facebook user posts approximately 90 pieces of content per month in 2011.
Relationships formed through social media platforms are known to require ongoing maintenance, and with such substantial potential, this is a given. This is a determinant of psychological well-being, and people can keep their connection, which can be explored after their death. The memories serve as great psychological aids to the departed person’s colleagues, including family, which helps improve their psychological well-being and increase their happiness.
Your Social Media Likes Expose More Than You Think
Social media platforms’ usage patterns can be categorized into passive and active usage. Active usage promotes direct exchanges, whereas passive usage involves consuming information from others. The passive use of social media has been linked to a person’s subjective well-being, whereas active usage has been associated with increased virtual ties and relationships. “There is a lot of power in social media that users do not have control over,” Jenifer argues, “That’s a real problem” (Golbeck 0:12-9).
The active usage of social media, what is posted, and the relationships created can determine a person’s traits. For example, a particular post can be used to predict whether a person is intelligent. The real problem is that it is hard for users to determine how their information will be used. However, this shortcoming can be overcome by implementing appropriate policies and measures, such as encryption. The data can then be used positively to improve psychological well-being and boost happiness.
Is Facebook Making Us Sad?
Social media also plays a role in contributing to feelings of sadness. Quoting Montesquieu, “If all we wanted were to be happy, then this would be easy. However, what makes it challenging is that we want to be happier than others” (Copeland 591). In her article, Libby Copeland argues that Facebook is a social media platform designed to facilitate the sharing of pictures, thoughts, and feelings. Its primary purpose is connecting with friends and family whom we cannot meet daily.
However, Facebook has become a platform that often leaves people feeling sad. One can agree with that when scrolling Facebook, one is met with happy pictures of colleagues on picnics, dates, and even having fun in fancy places. When we encounter such, and we have not yet figured out our lives together, the effect is that psychologically it makes us feel inferior, and we end up as sad and depressed persons.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the discussion has made it clear that social media and happiness are interrelated. Particularly through social media, ties are established by forming various intimate zones, such as best friends and romantic partners. According to the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Adam Ostrow, Elizabeth Stone, and Jennifer Golbeck, it can be concluded that social media plays a significant role in contributing to happiness. On the other hand, Libby Copeland is of the view that social media is more harmful than helpful. The fact that most of the readings and the TED Talk agree that social media is beneficial suggests that it makes people happy.
Works Cited
“Adam Ostrow: After your final status update.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 2011.
Elizabeth, Stone. “Grief in the Age of Facebook.” p. 587.
“Jennifer Golbeck: Your Social Media Likes Expose More Than You Think.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 2014.
Libby, Copeland. “Is Facebook Making Us Sad?” p. 591.
Mihaly, Csikszentmihalyi. “Happiness Revisited.” p. 683.