Advertising, Happiness, and the End of the World - Blog Post #2

Maile Danilchik

10/5/17

IB Language and Literature

Blog Post #2

Part I:

   I find happiness when I am doing what I love or when I am with people who I appreciate. This can be in riding my horse, reading a good book, painting, or being with friends and family. I am honestly at my happiest when I can combine many of these variables such as going to horse shows with my friends. I also find happiness in knowing people care about me and being able to be present when others need me. Happiness within a community, in my opinion, is an essential factor in life as humans. The idea of surveying national joy is seen with groups that orchestrate Gross National Happiness Surveys or GNH. Many of these surveys were performed in Bhutan, however, people have extended this idea to a global scale with the “Happy Planet Index” which rates the happiness of the world by country on a scale of an “HPI score” based on economics, environmental footprint, and life expectancy. I think that although this idea is interesting, you cannot quantify happiness because we haven’t succeeded in determining the qualities of happiness. We may associate happiness with smiling or with certain activities as I mentioned above, but find a universal sign of happiness proves itself difficult. Happiness can be related to “quality of life” and sometimes interchanged. Both of these terms are vague, yet we understand the meaning on a more subconscious level. However, we cannot find a way to discover a key factor or unit of measurement that is universally applicable. Therefore we resort to efforts similar to the HPI where we use real data points with national statistics to measure or assess something that is virtually unmeasurable. Finding the national happiness could maybe be quantified in a comprehensive survey, but that would rely on the general willingness of the population to participate which is difficult to obtain. In a New York Times article, “But Will It Make You Happy?”, research is quoted to suggest that happiness is widespread throughout leisure activities and vacations. Perhaps measuring the amount of travel (excluding business trips, medical trips, and non-extracurricular trips) could help find some data for figuring out national happiness.

Part II:

    “I’ve Been Called Luddite” by Kurt Vonnegut is about how he navigates the world of constant technological change and his thoughts on it. Vonnegut describes a Luddite as “a person who hates newfangled contraptions”. The term originates from Ned Ludd, a textile worker in England who protested against the use of mechanical looms in the workplace by damaging them, a capital crime at the time. His justification was that they were going to “put him out off work” with the ever increasing shift from humans in the workplace and factory jobs to machines. Vonnegut narrates his errand of going to the post office to mail a manuscript. Although this seems like a monotonous activity, every moment in the event is described with reverence for the simple things in life such as human interaction. The addition of modern technology in our society, for Vonnegut, seems to have replaced what seemed like quintessential parts of everyday life. He asserts that with this new dimension to our lives we are less happy because we cannot connect with each other. Besides losing touch with tangible reality, Vonnegut claims, “electronic communities build nothing. We are dancing animals”. Essentially, technology is dehumanizing us by taking away the simple interactions we share as part of our human nature. In his opinion, we cannot necessarily combat this movement towards a wholly technological society, but we can “get up and go out and do something” to detach us momentarily from a digitized world. I agree with Vonnegut that we are losing touch with each other on a more casual level with social interactions in a traditional sense. One could argue that technology such as social media can bring more people across nations together as a broader, less localized community; besides, with the implementation of technology, the possibilities for more innovation is present and waiting to be utilized. However, I think that we have lost the sense of happiness in performing normal tasks because they seem dull in comparison to the seemingly endless bounds of the internet and technology. Vonnegut’s nostalgia for a more straightforward past and a return to the “basics” in life could be a source of happiness in a chaotic, complex, and evolving world.

Part III:

This picture of my horse, Khaleesi, makes me happy because I love being with her. I also think she has a really cute nose and adorable eyes!