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You Can't Buy Happiness, But a Cell Phone Gets You Pretty Close, Survey Says

by Lee Bains on May 12, 2010 at 01:20 PM

Cell phone happinessA recent, global survey has posited a correlation between access to telecommunication and emotional wellness. In its study of 35,000 individuals, BCS, or the Chartered Institute for IT, found that low-income people and women in developing nations were the most likely to be emotionally uplifted by access to modern devices, the BBC reports.

On one hand, researchers attribute this phenomenon to the social repression of women in poorer countries, and the sense of liberation that the phone or Internet can afford. On the other, they suggest that owning a cell phone or computer serves as an indication of social status in many parts of the world, regardless of whether or not such devices actually elevate an owner's position in society. "Whether that prosperity in terms of monetary returns actually materializes is not documented," Intel researcher Kathi Kitner told the BCC. "But it is very real in terms of perception." In present day India, for instance, a computer signifies success in the way that the Cadillac did in the U.S. of the '50s.

While keeping up with the Joneses (or the Patels) may bring some measure of pride to a person, we know all too well that such feelings only last until the next expensive, high-tech totem starts to show up in the neighbors' driveways and homes. Frequent social contact with beloved friends and family, though, is as firm a bedrock of happiness as we can identify -- and providing us that joy is, to our minds anyway, modern technology's greatest triumph. [From: BBC]

Tags: cellphone, developing world, emotionalhealth, happiness, internet, poverty, socialnetworking, survey, technology, top, web, women

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