628 - Happiness

From the headlines ********************

Happiness May Spread in Social Networks

Happiness may be contagious, suggests a new study published online today in British Medical Journal. Researchers found that a person's happiness can spread within three degrees of separation. "Our own personal happiness spreads beyond people we're directly connected to," study co-author James Fowler, an associate professor of political science at the University of CaliforniaSan Diego, told HealthDay. The study looked at 4,739 children of original participants in the Framingham Heart Study and followed their friendships with others from 1983 to 2003. They found that a person's happiness is mostly likely to impact how happy the people closest to him are, including spouses, relatives, friends, and neighbors. But the happiness effect may also spread outward to people the original person has never met. The study is one in a series looking at how contagious loneliness, smoking, and other behaviors are.

************************

So here's the deal my social network. It's up to you to make me happy. And I don't think you're doing a good enough job!! So get your happy ass up and figure something out to make me more happy. This lack of happiness is making me ..... unhappy! I don't know how much longer I'm going to put up with this 'lack uh happy' before I have to do something about it myself.

And what are they talking about with happiness being contagious? Is that a good thing or not? I guess it depends on how you get happy.