Seriously scaling down my Facebook presense
Recently a study was released by Carsten Grimm, a postgraduate psychology researcher at University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, that presents some pretty damning conclusions as to what makes us happy. Read the given link, which is a press release directly from the university, and has a lot more information than the other articles online about the study.
Atheists and party people are proclaiming that "Sex and alcohol bring more happiness than religion? No shit." Religious folk and parenting groups are decrying that people are less interested in what gives meaning to life. The internet, in its usual fashion, has taken an otherwise serious study, and plastered the only results they care about.
What nobody is reporting is to me, one of the most damning conclusions this study receives. So first, the full table, as seen on the UC Press Release:
Average Momentary Ratings of Daily Behaviours
Top-ranked:Behaviour
Pleasure
Meaning
Engagement
Happiness
Sex/ making love
1st
1st
1st
1st
Drinking alcohol/ partying
2nd
10th
5th
2nd
Care-giving/ volunteering
9th
3rd
6th
3rd
Meditating/ religious activities
8th
2nd
7th
4th
Childcare/ playing with children
10th
4th
11th
5th
Listening to music/ podcast
3rd
17th
13th
6th
Socialising/ talking/ chatting
5th
11th
10th
7th
Hobbies/ arts/ crafts
4th
5th
4th
8th
Shopping/ errands
15th
16th
16th
9th
Gaming/ video-games
6th
24th
9th
10th
Lower-ranked
Washing/ dressing/ grooming
22nd
29th
30th
21st
Internet/ on computer
20th
28th
21st
22nd
Commuting/ travelling
27th
23rd
29th
23rd
Paid work
26th
15th
17th
24th
Lectures/ class/ lab
23rd
8th
15th
25th
Texting/ emailing
21st
18th
18th
26th
Studying/ working on education
28th
7th
14th
27th
Housework/ chores/ DIY
29th
27th
27th
28th
Facebook
24th
30th
28th
29th
Sick/ healthcare
30th
25th
25th
30th
Note. Behaviours ranked from highest to lowest on happiness. There were 30 behaviour categories in all; the highest and lowest 10 behaviours on happiness are shown.
I contacted the graduate student who researched this, out of my morbid curiosity as to what was his actual intention, his sample size, and how the research was conducted. Part of what I e-mailed him:
While the internet is laughing it up over the triumph of sex and alcohol over kids and religion, I had a very sobering moment noting the ranking of Facebook. This especially since Facebook was in a separate category from closely related behaviours: "Socialising/ talking/ chatting", "Internet/ on computer", and "Texting/ emailing" - the latter two also ranked on the bottom 10 of the "Happiness" category. I am far from a Luddite, but at the same time I recognize that the less I'm on the computer means the more time I have to spend with my wife and twin 3.5 year old daughters, which to me is infinitely more meaningful than reading up on what 350 of my friends are doing.
He responded in kind with this:
Summary of research: Orientations to happiness and daily well-being.
I believe we need to become more sophisticated in our conversation about happiness. Psychologists are now able to identify that the things that add to our life satisfaction - the cognitive assessment of how we are doing, all things considered - are not necessarily the same things that contribute to our daily well-being (see Kahneman & Deaton, 2010, for an excellent example of this). Understanding those differences, and their implications for our societies, is one of my research interests.
Psychologists (Peterson, Park, and Seligman, 2005) have proposed that individuals may seek to increase their well-being through three main behavioural orientations; via pleasure, via engagement, and via meaning. Endorsing pleasure as a way to happiness means you may focus on feeling good and enjoying sensory pleasures; you are more likely to endorse a statement such as "I enjoy eating dessert first”. Engagement is what you experience when you are totally absorbed in what you are doing; either skiing down a hill or being immersed in your work. Psychologists call this experience a state of “flow” and this may be a dominant orientation to happiness for some people. Having meaning in your life is also a way to pursue happiness; being part of something bigger and contributing to the greater good. It may be that we all have our own blend of orientations to pursuing the good life for us as individuals.
In the current research, 173 participants completed all online personality questionnaires and an acceptable number of text-message replies (≥15 of 21 messages; 71%). Participants received three text-messages (SMS) per day for 7 days, random within each interval in the morning (9am- 12pm), afternoon (1pm - 5pm) and evening (6pm - 10pm). Messages asked participants to say what they were doing at that moment, who they were with, and a rating of the current activity using their phone’s keypad (where 1 = not at all; 5 = moderately; 9 = extremely) of pleasure, meaning, engagement, and momentary happiness.
The age range was 17 - 58, average age was 23. This is therefore a young-and completely non-representative-sample, and younger people tend to be more orientated towards pleasure (Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009). Caution should therefore be exercised when interpreting the specific behaviour rankings from this one piece of work. Nevertheless, there are some interesting things going on in the composition of pleasure, meaning, and engagement in the daily lives of the participants in this study. For example, gaming (video-games) rated relatively high on pleasure and engagement, but was near the bottom of 30 behaviour categories on average meaning. The reverse is found also; where studying (working on education) was low on pleasure, it was relatively high on meaning. I think the results contribute to the perspective that we can think in more sophisticated terms about the composition of what we are getting out of our daily lives in terms of well-being.
I also found that people who endorsed all three orientation to happiness dimensions-pleasure, meaning, and engagement-tended to be high not only on life satisfaction, but also in daily well-being, ie. how much pleasure, meaning, engagement, and happiness they experienced during the day. This provides some evidence at the daily experiential level of what has been termed ‘the full life’ (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005).
As a personal example of this from my own experience; I tend to score high on an orientation to meaning-which is great for me and serves me well-but I think I could be better at "balancing my happiness portfolio" (my expression). Perhaps if I paid a bit more attention to savouring techniques I could lift my pleasure orientation and I would potentially see that show up in my daily well-being.
I am excited about ways we can inform our understanding of what matters using innovative research, especially as a way of informing policy about what counts in our lives, and what we should be focusing on measuring and understanding. The methodology used in this study is called “experience sampling”. I think this method is a rich and powerful way to get a window into our daily well-being and I am excited about the future possibilities using this technique. In summary, I think the results contribute to the perspective that we can think in more sophisticated terms about the composition of what we are getting out of our daily lives in terms of well-being.
Here's where I step in.
I have issues with Facebook. Personally, with Facebook, Inc., the people I keep in contact with over Facebook, and the groups that I've joined. And I've tried quitting Facebook before, and it was a bit of a bust, because I hadn't clearly defined my quitting terms beyond "cold turkey, no more." Needless to say, it didn't take long until I was back on. Certain friends are absolutely right in pointing this out as I'm about to take another voluntary break from Facebook.
Being realistic, I use Facebook for one of four reasons:
Atheists and party people are proclaiming that "Sex and alcohol bring more happiness than religion? No shit." Religious folk and parenting groups are decrying that people are less interested in what gives meaning to life. The internet, in its usual fashion, has taken an otherwise serious study, and plastered the only results they care about.
What nobody is reporting is to me, one of the most damning conclusions this study receives. So first, the full table, as seen on the UC Press Release:
Average Momentary Ratings of Daily Behaviours
Top-ranked:Behaviour
Pleasure
Meaning
Engagement
Happiness
Sex/ making love
1st
1st
1st
1st
Drinking alcohol/ partying
2nd
10th
5th
2nd
Care-giving/ volunteering
9th
3rd
6th
3rd
Meditating/ religious activities
8th
2nd
7th
4th
Childcare/ playing with children
10th
4th
11th
5th
Listening to music/ podcast
3rd
17th
13th
6th
Socialising/ talking/ chatting
5th
11th
10th
7th
Hobbies/ arts/ crafts
4th
5th
4th
8th
Shopping/ errands
15th
16th
16th
9th
Gaming/ video-games
6th
24th
9th
10th
Lower-ranked
Washing/ dressing/ grooming
22nd
29th
30th
21st
Internet/ on computer
20th
28th
21st
22nd
Commuting/ travelling
27th
23rd
29th
23rd
Paid work
26th
15th
17th
24th
Lectures/ class/ lab
23rd
8th
15th
25th
Texting/ emailing
21st
18th
18th
26th
Studying/ working on education
28th
7th
14th
27th
Housework/ chores/ DIY
29th
27th
27th
28th
24th
30th
28th
29th
Sick/ healthcare
30th
25th
25th
30th
Note. Behaviours ranked from highest to lowest on happiness. There were 30 behaviour categories in all; the highest and lowest 10 behaviours on happiness are shown.
I contacted the graduate student who researched this, out of my morbid curiosity as to what was his actual intention, his sample size, and how the research was conducted. Part of what I e-mailed him:
While the internet is laughing it up over the triumph of sex and alcohol over kids and religion, I had a very sobering moment noting the ranking of Facebook. This especially since Facebook was in a separate category from closely related behaviours: "Socialising/ talking/ chatting", "Internet/ on computer", and "Texting/ emailing" - the latter two also ranked on the bottom 10 of the "Happiness" category. I am far from a Luddite, but at the same time I recognize that the less I'm on the computer means the more time I have to spend with my wife and twin 3.5 year old daughters, which to me is infinitely more meaningful than reading up on what 350 of my friends are doing.
He responded in kind with this:
Summary of research: Orientations to happiness and daily well-being.
I believe we need to become more sophisticated in our conversation about happiness. Psychologists are now able to identify that the things that add to our life satisfaction - the cognitive assessment of how we are doing, all things considered - are not necessarily the same things that contribute to our daily well-being (see Kahneman & Deaton, 2010, for an excellent example of this). Understanding those differences, and their implications for our societies, is one of my research interests.
Psychologists (Peterson, Park, and Seligman, 2005) have proposed that individuals may seek to increase their well-being through three main behavioural orientations; via pleasure, via engagement, and via meaning. Endorsing pleasure as a way to happiness means you may focus on feeling good and enjoying sensory pleasures; you are more likely to endorse a statement such as "I enjoy eating dessert first”. Engagement is what you experience when you are totally absorbed in what you are doing; either skiing down a hill or being immersed in your work. Psychologists call this experience a state of “flow” and this may be a dominant orientation to happiness for some people. Having meaning in your life is also a way to pursue happiness; being part of something bigger and contributing to the greater good. It may be that we all have our own blend of orientations to pursuing the good life for us as individuals.
In the current research, 173 participants completed all online personality questionnaires and an acceptable number of text-message replies (≥15 of 21 messages; 71%). Participants received three text-messages (SMS) per day for 7 days, random within each interval in the morning (9am- 12pm), afternoon (1pm - 5pm) and evening (6pm - 10pm). Messages asked participants to say what they were doing at that moment, who they were with, and a rating of the current activity using their phone’s keypad (where 1 = not at all; 5 = moderately; 9 = extremely) of pleasure, meaning, engagement, and momentary happiness.
The age range was 17 - 58, average age was 23. This is therefore a young-and completely non-representative-sample, and younger people tend to be more orientated towards pleasure (Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009). Caution should therefore be exercised when interpreting the specific behaviour rankings from this one piece of work. Nevertheless, there are some interesting things going on in the composition of pleasure, meaning, and engagement in the daily lives of the participants in this study. For example, gaming (video-games) rated relatively high on pleasure and engagement, but was near the bottom of 30 behaviour categories on average meaning. The reverse is found also; where studying (working on education) was low on pleasure, it was relatively high on meaning. I think the results contribute to the perspective that we can think in more sophisticated terms about the composition of what we are getting out of our daily lives in terms of well-being.
I also found that people who endorsed all three orientation to happiness dimensions-pleasure, meaning, and engagement-tended to be high not only on life satisfaction, but also in daily well-being, ie. how much pleasure, meaning, engagement, and happiness they experienced during the day. This provides some evidence at the daily experiential level of what has been termed ‘the full life’ (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005).
As a personal example of this from my own experience; I tend to score high on an orientation to meaning-which is great for me and serves me well-but I think I could be better at "balancing my happiness portfolio" (my expression). Perhaps if I paid a bit more attention to savouring techniques I could lift my pleasure orientation and I would potentially see that show up in my daily well-being.
I am excited about ways we can inform our understanding of what matters using innovative research, especially as a way of informing policy about what counts in our lives, and what we should be focusing on measuring and understanding. The methodology used in this study is called “experience sampling”. I think this method is a rich and powerful way to get a window into our daily well-being and I am excited about the future possibilities using this technique. In summary, I think the results contribute to the perspective that we can think in more sophisticated terms about the composition of what we are getting out of our daily lives in terms of well-being.
Here's where I step in.
I have issues with Facebook. Personally, with Facebook, Inc., the people I keep in contact with over Facebook, and the groups that I've joined. And I've tried quitting Facebook before, and it was a bit of a bust, because I hadn't clearly defined my quitting terms beyond "cold turkey, no more." Needless to say, it didn't take long until I was back on. Certain friends are absolutely right in pointing this out as I'm about to take another voluntary break from Facebook.
Being realistic, I use Facebook for one of four reasons:
- To keep in contact with friends that I would otherwise have no contact with. This usually includes friends and family overseas that I don't see on a regular basis. There are some friends from Toronto that if it wasn't for Facebook, I would have completely fallen out of touch with them. This, to me, is the greatest thing about using Facebook, hands down. It is a one-stop platform from which I can easily maintain friendships that span several time zones.
- To keep in touch with local friends that I see on a regular basis or can simply call. Because let's face it, the phone is ancient technology, and nobody SMSes anymore when you can just do it through Facebook. Plus, it's a great way to keep everyone up to date on what you last ate, what you're making for dinner, and that funny little anecdote about your most recent social disaster.
- Social media as a marketing platform. This month's Movember was a bit of a bust for me because of, well, that whole war thing. But if it wasn't for that, and if my personal health were to be a little more stable, you better believe that I'd be posting daily about Movember, while networking contacts so that I could help Israel gain official country status for next year's Movember. Likewise, Hairspray Jerusalem, which is going to be the most kickass show you'll ever see not on Broadway.
- For teh lulz. I am addicted to internet comedy, and that is, without any softening of terms, a Bad Thing (tm). Let's face it, as funny as the latest meme is, my kids are that much funnier. And while I love the awfulness of internet comedy, and the terrible black humour that comes out of it, it's time for me to shift my focus.
- No non-networking, non-help-asking, non-big-personal-news posts.
- No more gratuitous linking, resharing of lulz or news or whatever, no posting of the latest funny thing that the kids did.
- I will only read my friends feed once a week, for one hour only.
- I will not respond to anything that's non-networking, non-help-asking, non-big-personal-news posts, unless it's a simple "Like".
- Anything that y'all deem to be super-important for me to read, tag me. I may or may not respond.
- The only Facebook app I will keep on my phone will be Messenger. I would prefer if you contacted me by WhatsApp.
- I may use Facebook for things that are necessary to my school and my volunteer activities. This includes Movember and Hairspray. All attempts will be made to make sure nothing else gets added to that list.