Saturday, March 28, 2009

Happy People

We all claim to want to be happy; but some folks seem to work hard at being unhappy. I recently read a book on the secrets of happy people. This particular hint made sense to me:

Don't accept television's picture of the world.

Aint it the truth!? Judging from what one sees on the screen, a viewer would come to the conclusion that everybody in the world is very wealthy. Society as a whole is now living in frustration because people believe that they are being denied the almost universal wealth that seems to be the domain of everybody else. Much of the unhappiness that we see around us is the result of people not being able to separate what they see on TV from what they know to be real. Happy people base expectations on reality, not on the fiction presented on TV. According to Social Indicators Research ("Separating People's Satisfaction with Life and Public Perceptions of the Quality of Life in the Environment" by Jeffres and Dobbs in 1995)

"Television changes our view of the world and can encourage us to develop highly unrealistic and often damaging conclusiions that serve to reduce our life satisfaction by up to 50%."

4 comments:

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Ruth said...

Yes. So very true. Television could have been a blessing (happiness ) for us but instead has be an instrument for much unrest and unhappiness...not to mention a waste of time...

Norma said...

I'm not so influenced (might be my age) but am frustrated by TV's writers and owners who present such a negative view of everything.

Anonymous said...
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