Hallo... according to a study conducted by someone somewhere, Americans are about as happy now as they were in 1946! Sounds untrue, since we have lots of fancy technology at our fingertips these days. We have gadgets in all shapes and sizes to make our lives easier and faster. Well, then why are we unhappy or not as happy as we should be?
This weekend, I went to purchase a scanner and the checkout lady insisted I purchase insurance for the next two years. What? Are you kidding me, two years of insurance for a gadget that will be obsolete perhaps before the end of 2005? No way! The way technology is heading, a scanner model 5 times as good will be out in the market in no time.
Guess what? My attitude and my approach to technology is the problem, accordingly to a certain study. I constantly experience a phenomenon psychologists call, "hedonic adaptation." In a nutshell, the new gadget comes out, I buy it, I get bored, the next model comes out, I buy, I get bored, etc. I am not alone, most of us behave this way. Gosh, society made me a hedonist?!
Check out MIT's Technology Review - January 2004, specially the article "Technology and Happiness." This magazine as a whole is one of the best I have read!
-zensufi-
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