The world today is definitely a better place to live than it was one hundred years ago. Work today is not so physically demanding as it used to be, people seem to have more free time (at least, it is supposed to be so if they spend less time at work), manual house work was replaced by washing machines, dish washers and microwave ovens, communication systems made it easy to keep in touch with our relatives and friends, new technologies supplied us with a number of entertainment activities which our grandparents could not even think of. “The brave new world” of the twenty first century is definitely worth living in.
However, when asked if people feel happy and content with their lives, more and more admit often feeling depressed, lonely, unhappy and deeply dissatisfied. Why does it happen so that despite all the advantages and benefits, we seem to lose joy and happiness, rather than gain them? The matter is that in the course of the development of our society the technological advances deprived us of several ways to satisfy our basic communication needs.
First, new entertainment technologies have made our leisure time a solitary activity, but not a family one as it used to be. So, in reality they increased the level of loneliness. Second, the communication technology made us contact our family and friends more by phone and via the Internet than face to face. It means that we are actually deprived of the opportunity to use our body language and to read other signs of non-verbal communication. This fact increases the level of anxiety considerably.
So, the recipe for happiness is…