International Law

Are you happy?

Mashable's Paul Glazowski asks, does social networking make you happy?

And, well, the answer I have for you is pretty simple: online social networking upsets people.

Funny, eh? Yeah, in some respects, such a conclusion is really very humorous. Perhaps too humorous. But if you were to take a fairly basic look at how I?ve arrived at the abovementioned premise, you might not think it too far off the mark.

We all know which nations of the world are well developed and which are still in the early and middle stages of their own industrial revolutions. Is it too far fetched to think that the complex frameworks that are Web-based social networks play at least a small role in the exhaustion of happiness in the developed world?

Of course, it?s a stretch to think online social networking is the cause of the global psychological depression currently sweeping the US and other developed powerhouses. It?s certainly not a direct culprit of widespread moroseness.

But, like all things we well-off folk engorge ourselves upon, online social network is a central part of the big puzzle that is our highly sophisticated lifestyle. The majority of people residing in places like India, China and Nigeria aren?t so privileged (yet) as to be given MySpace and Facebook connections on a scale proportional to the Western world. The majority of their respective populations operate via far more simple and elementary modes of communication. And so they don?t have many cumbersome distractions. No need to maintain ties with dozens (or even hundreds or thousands) of associates near and far. Just the basics of existence. And they?re fairly content in such circumstances.

That?s not to say they?re happy to remain apart from the developed economies of the globe. Humans by nature wish to advance. But there?s something to be said about keeping things as plain, uncomplicated, and uncluttered as possible.

So while you?re out on the Web today, tomorrow and the next day, maintaining your networking account(s), conversing both with friends and ?friends,? consider this question: Are you happy?

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on January 26, 2008 (boomark / email).