Friday, December 05, 2008

Is Happiness Contagious?

I just saw an article on cnn.com this morning. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/05/happiness.social.network/index.html

It states that in a University of California - San Diego study, that happiness spreads more than unhappiness in a social network.

I agree with this, to a point.

I find unhappiness spreads very quickly itself. It's the whole domino effect. Your kids are mad, they take it out on you, you get annoyed and take it out on the clerk at the grocery store, she gets mad and starts taking it out on the customers who come after you, and so on and so on.

With that however, you need a personal connection to make it spread.

With happiness.... you don't really need as much of one. How many times has someone's bad mood online affected me? Not very often, I just mute them. But how many times have I seen someone online clearly enjoying themselves more than they should, and it wound up making me a goofball?

Monday, December 01, 2008

Black Friday = insane people

Yes, I'm one of the idiots that go out on Black Friday. It's a tradition. Even if the sales aren't so great (like this year), I still go out.

I remember the days when I was in the thick of the frenzies... Remember the Furby? I remember that day we did 4 stores in about 45 minutes and FINALLY had success! I also spent a cold, rainy morning in line at Best Buy to get my husband a laptop computer. Or the year all of us huddled around a puny little table at Wal-mart to get the RCA mp3 player (that was a hunk of junk).

But what is up with the crowds? If you ever wondered about the "mob mentality" attitude that psychiatrists say exists, go to Walmart on Black Friday. Would there EVER be a time when one or two people would knock down a man and trample him? No. But somehow when a group of people get together, people don't think twice about it.

Hey, I realize you were out in the cold all night to get a good deal on a TV. Ummm..... who made you do it? Do you also realize that you probably could have gotten that TV from the warmth of your home by going online? What makes your want of a TV more important than a man's life?