https://www.ted.com/playlists/4/what_makes_us_happy
Please add an intelligent comment (minimum 5 sentences) in response to opinions of the linked videos on happiness. What stylistic or rhetorical devices did the speaker use in his/ her speech? Be sure to use a minimum of one quote in your response. Optional: Comment on a classmate's post in a second post (minimum 3 sentences) *Use only your first name, last initial and class period.
I actually really enjoyed this TED talk because it was on a topic I could definitely relate to. I am terrible at making decisions, and when it comes down to it, I usually rely on others to make my decisions or prefer them to do so. It turns out that happiness originates from the frontal lobe in the brain, and it could be in the form of synthesized or natural. Most people assume that synthetic happiness is lesser than natural but it has been proven that they have equal potential. I really like how he also mentioned that freedom to choose is the enemy of synthetic happiness, and he had quality proof to back up that particular statement. He goes on to discuss the Harvard photography study with the final two prints, in which he gave one group the liberty to choose and the other 2 minutes to make the same decision. I initially thought that the group with the four day deliberation period would be happier with their final choice, but it was the complete opposite. Those who had to make the decision right away became happier with their choice since they didn't have the opportunity to change their mind, compared to the other group that spent hours negotiating what to do. This TED talk was very intriguing to me, and it will definitely have an influence on my decision making in the future.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Case
Period 3
I thought we were suppose to choose our own Ted Talk so I watched a different video. It was by a scientist named Matt Killingsworth. One fact that he mentioned that I knew about but never gave it a thought was that we humans, Americans have progressed so much : we are richer, we can live longer, have access to technology, etc. But we still aren’t happy. He talks about why we still aren’t happy and the big answer turned out to be Mind Wandering. Killingworth mentioned that the more we live for this moment the more happiness we attain. We commonly are mind wandering - what’s for dinner, what am I going to wear for the party, why are we reading this article,etc. We are zoning out, and are living in our own thought bubble. Sure, mind wandering about pleasant things can make one happy, but the same level of happiness can be achieved if the person stays focused on the task they are working on at the moment. Also, we often end up mind wandering about topics that relate to stress and are unpleasant, which makes us less happy. So, Killingsworth makes a great point that we literally need to live in the moment if we want to be happy. The more we live in our thought bubble, the more far we are from happiness.
ReplyDeleteI then watched the video that we were actually suppose to watch by Dan Gilbert about synthesizing happiness. He had great sense of humor, which made the video more interesting. But anyways, it’s quite amazing how we synthesize happiness unconsciously. We make ourselves believe that the photo we choose is actually the better one than the one we left behind. But I had no idea that the quick decision vs time to contemplate the better one between the two images could impact my happiness. The more option and time I have, by the time I choose one I would still be unsatisfied and unhappy with the photo I picked. But I am not alone 66% of people would rather have time to think about which photo is better. Its hard to say what little things can impact our happiness since there are so many influences. But knowing one of them makes my life little happier.
~Shilpa R Period 3
I watched the Ted Talk called The Hidden Power of Smiling by Ron Gutman. It started out on a really cool note, talking about a study conducted where scientists predicted future quality of life based on the smiles seen in old yearbook pictures. Then they looked at baseball cards and found that the span of a baseball player's smile could also predict the span of his life. Then he went on to talk about how you smile when you're born, and then go on in childhood to smile up to 400 times per day. One thing that he used a lot of was example and fact. He even included a quote from Charles Darwin saying that, "Even the simulation of an emotion tends to arouse it in our minds." He also uses humor to persuade, by saying that even chocolate can not make us feel as happy as feigning a smile. He says that one smile can create as much brain simulation as up to two thousand bars of chocolate. And of course, this makes the audience laugh, thus further convincing them of his claims. He uses real life connections like Mark Zuckerberg to get us to relate fully to the things he is saying. Smiling can improve your health, and make you look better to others. I now believe (not that I did not before) that a smile is all-powerful.
ReplyDeleteJennifer G.
Period 3
I found this TED talk on happiness very interesting because it brings forth new discussion on decision making and how we become satisfied with the choices we make. I found his experiment with Harvard college students at the photography class very surprising. He gives the class the opportunity to take home only one of the two pictures they create. However, half the group has to make a final decision and the other half can change their mind. What he found was that the students who didn't have the option to change their minds were happier with their choice then those who could change. At first I found this very surprising, but I am now able to see the logic behind it. When you have more of a choice, it is easy to second guess yourself, even after the decision is over. However, if the decision is final, it's easier to accept the choice made. It was funny though, because the next time the photography class was offered, he let the students pick if they wanted the option to switch their picture and most said yes. This proved that we really aren't sure of what brings us happiness. I will definitely think of this experiment in the future when making decisions.
ReplyDeleteEleanor Hall
Period 3
The TED Talk that I decided to watch was titled "Less Stuff, More Happiness" After watching it for a few moments, I realized that I had actually seen this exact video a few years ago and remembered how it brought some good points. In this video, the speaker brought up a good point that if you buy more stuff, your happiness will actually be decreased because you will be getting deeper into debt, you will become stressed, and you will leave a larger impact on the environment. I found this to be interesting because I've experienced something like this before. I wanted something so bad before that I thought it would make me happier if I bought it, but it turns out, once I had, nothing special actually came from it, my "happiness" didn't increase. Another point the speaker made was that once you cut out the unnecessary items, you will be left with only your favorites which will likely induce happiness. I found this video to be great and it actually surprised me that you can live in just 400 square feet, but have the amount of features as a 2000 square foot house.
ReplyDeleteKevin C.
Period 3
I found the TED talk I watched to be really interesting. Dan Gilbert talks about the science of happiness and used research and studies to prove his point. He compares how most people would guess that someone who won the lottery would be more happy compared to someone being a paraplegic. But studies show that people who won the lottery are actually equally happy as paraplegics. The human mind has an immune system allowing us to bounce back from rough situations and be happy once again. He says the secret of happiness for most is being "synthetically happy". This means that the people who may not have gotten what they wanted during life, remain happy by seeing the good of their outcome and being content with it. I find this interesting. Although, in many cases, I personally find it difficult to be just as happy failing at something, than if I succeeded.
ReplyDeleteClaire Paterson
Class 3
I found this Ted talk surprising. Dan Gilbert took a new spin on happiness. The spin was science. He talked about the science of being happy and what your brain does to trick you into thinking that happiness can be achieved by certain situations. He says that there are many things that people will think will make you happy such as winning money, being in a relationship, or moving to a new location and these situations do not have a high happiness rate like we would all believe. It was interesting to hear about the choices we make because of our subconscious wanting to be happy. This ted talk made it clear that material things do not make us the happiest in life.
ReplyDeleteElena Muniz Period 3
Happiness in my opinion is about what you have emotionally over what you have physically. I like how this TED talk really broke into the different cause of happiness and the science behind it. It helped me to solidify the idea that happiness can be achieved by everyone, and that it can not be achieved simply through the pursuit of personal gain. It explained how the chemicals in your brain react to certain stimulus that make you happy. I think that it was a great way for people to see how there are literally things inside your body that can make you happy. Personal gains and items do not provide all of people's happiness. While they may sustain your happiness for a short period of time, they also stimulate a constant need for new and better items. This greed that is created eventually leads to people not being happy anymore because they no longer are able to sustain their need for physical goods. So I think that the only true way to happiness is to find emotional happiness with friends and family
ReplyDeleteMike B Per 3
DeleteI really enjoyed the TED talk about happiness being found in gratefulness. I actually connected to the ideas of the presenter fairly well, and found myself recognizing the "opportunities" and "moments" he talks about where we can achieve gratefulness. When he says, "gratefulness is the gift within every gift," I understood that it is not happiness that will cause you to be grateful, it is gratefulness that must occur and you will find happiness. I agree that you are surrounded by opportunities to find gratefulness, and I can relate to many times when ive be surrounded by all types of opportunities waiting for me, good and bad, and ive been able to remind myself that if I find those good opportunities and be grateful for them it wont be so hard to deal with the bad ones where there isn't much gratefulness to be found. It's not exactly that you can or should be able to find happiness or gratefulness in the bad things that happen in life, but I think the presenter is trying to enforce the idea that life is always moving and youre bound to pass by something that is just waiting to be appreciated and that is when youre gratefulness sprouts and it will catch on and help you in all aspects of life when you think there is no good to be found. He says that opportunities present themselves to us in ways that we may not recognize, or appreciate, but we need to learn to admire the beauty that they can give us whether it be patience, dedication, determination, or peace.
ReplyDeletecara b
period 3
The Ted talk I watched on happiness was "The surprising science of happiness". It was really interesting because the speaker Dan Gilbert provided a different perspective on life. He talked about how we subconsciously do things that make us unhappy and happy. He performed an experiment on college students in which they had 2 paintings and one group got to pick one painting and had the option of switching back paintings, and the other group didn't have the option. The group that didn't have the option to switch was a lot happier because they were content with their choice and had convinced themselves that the one they picked was superior to the other. The group that had the option was generally less happy because they kept doubting their choice and couldn't decide which was better. The lesson I took from watching this Ted talk is that you'll be a lot happier in the long run if you make permanent decisions instead of making tentative ones.
ReplyDeleteJustin Campos
Period 3
The Ted talk that I watched was "The hidden power of smiling" by Ron Gutman. To me his presentation was informative, useful, and interesting. I enjoyed this video because it gave me a perspective on a biological, psychological, cultural, and physical outlook on smiling. In my psychology class, we learned that all humans have similar facial expressions when we are sad, happy, angry, or shocked according to Paul Ekmen. When Ekmen studied in Papa New Guinea, he noticed that even old tribes who had no communication with the Western World smiled when expressing joy. As for a biological point of view, the video stated that all humans are born smiling in the womb when we look at ultrasounds with the modern technology that is available to us. What I found interesting was that the length of one's smile can even determine how long we live. It seemed silly to me at first, but when Gutman displayed a chart of 3 baseball players, the one who had the biggest grin on his face lived longer.
ReplyDeleteThe most important aspect that I learned from this video is that a smile is powerful. We think that chocolate or money or material objects can make us happy, but the fact is a simple smile can really change our health, mood, and perspective. A smile can stimulate the brain to think positive thoughts and not to be negative. It's comforting to know that despite all the differences we have as people, a common expression that unites us all is a smile.
Reitsuma Panta
Period 3
I really enjoyed the Ted Talk. I went in thinking that it was just going to be a motivational 20 minutes on how you can be a happier person and think better but in reality it talked about what happiness really is. It had facts and scientific experiments in which happiness was tested and how it can actually change your perspective on life. But also i was a bit confused on what it was trying to get at. I understand that it talked about why we're happy with certain things, but it didn't explain what really makes us happy and why we feel happiness. Again, i wasn't sure what i was getting into but i felt like all of the research and studies were going to lead up to some kind of climax but it didn't. It just ended at the conclusion of an experiment study and so I'm kind of left thinking what did I just watch? I did like it though so i guess that's what matters. It led to insight on why people make certain decisions about things, which can be useful in persuading people into do what you want them to do. Overall, it was a good, informative video.
ReplyDeleteAlec Janis
The TED talk I watched was "The paradox of choice" by Barry Schwartz. Barry talks about what happiness truly is and how happiness goes up as more opportunities become available. This is very true when you think through it. If you are searching for a job, multiple offers will make you feel happier and more optimistic. The larger choice you have over what you want, the happier you will be. However, there is a drawback. Barry outlines this in the video when he talks about getting Jeans fit. He has such a selection but couldn't find a "perfect" one; he left happy but not ecstatic. The wider the selection, the higher our expectations will be. While a greater selection does yield better chances of finding something you want, it also raises your expectations and leave you sadder than if you had low expectations. This, for me, is why finding the correct college/major is so difficult. There are so many options that i cannot possibly look at all of them. This scares me, yet i am glad i have the option. Happiness is important in life, and like all things important, isn't an easy thing to master.
ReplyDeleteJared Platt Period 3