Can social networking make us happy?

Happiness has long been a topical issue for the UK media. 'Happiness may protect against breast cancer', 'Teach kids happiness? What a laugh' are just some of the headlines that have made the papers recently. Even my old local paper – The Bristol Evening Post – yesterday posted a story about university research into the sources of happiness.

Marketers have been quick to tap into our happiness obsession. Skoda, for instance, has been pushing the message: 'the manufacter of happy drivers' to communicate the brand's personality. Norwich Union has also been deploying similar tactics with its “quote me happy" strap-line.

But what is happiness? According to Nicholas Christakis and his team at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, people’s happiness depends not only on the happiness of an immediate friend but - to a lesser degree - on the happiness of their friend's friend, and their friend's friend's friend. The researchers discovered two factors are crucial to happiness: frequency of social contact and the strength of the relationship.

Surrounding yourself with happy social networks, it would seem, is key to our happiness – makes sense to me. But what about online social networking? What impact does this have on our happiness? According to New Scientist magazine no one is quite sure about the extent to which emotions can propagate through virtual networks. It would be interesting to find out how much your Facebook network of friends influence your day-to-day happiness, what impact the blogs you read have on your mood and to what extent Twitter updates make us smile. Until then looks like I'll have to keep checking Happy Tweets to make sure I'm sending out some happy vibes of my own. 

Once Upon A Time…

I really like the view that PR practitioners are ‘corporate story tellers.’ Whether it is a press conference, speech, or press release - a story can be told. Good stories have key components such as heroes, goals and adversaries. They also feature conflict and characters that emerge over time as a plot progresses. Story telling is an important part of human culture. Good stories have the ability to educate, entertain and create curiosity.

Below is a video that I discovered whilst reading a post from Dan York. It’s a really creative approach to story telling and one that forces you to watch again in order to discover the message behind the narrative.

Social Responsibility Beyond Environmentalism?

On Thursday 18th January, MSC Napoli, a cargo ship containing 2,400 containers of goods and dangerous chemicals was beached off the Devon coast. Although efforts by coastguards to remove 3,500 tonnes of oil from the ship are helping to alleviate a potential environmental disaster, the incident has also created another issue, with hundreds of people helping themselves to goods which have been washed ashore.

Goods taken by scavengers, have so far included, around 50 BMW motorcycles, wine casks, and perfume. Despite police efforts to encourage people to report goods that have been taken, some items have already started to appear on the online auction site, e-Bay.

Police and costal authorities have been quick to criticise the action of looters and have warned those taking goods that they could face prosecution under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.

Despite such action, there has yet to be any form of comment from those companies which own the goods that have been washed ashore. In a year which looks set to be characterised by an increased emphasis on social responsibility, surely these companies should respond to the issue in some way.

Although not responsible for the shipwreck itself, companies such as BMW, could help to encourage looters which have taken goods, to co-operate with the relevant authorities. Assuming some degree of responsibility would be far better than simply ignoring the situation and allowing potentially damaged and dangerous products, to be sold on to unsuspecting consumers.

Blogging is good for democracy

According to the latest report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Americans are now using the internet as a primary source for political information and news. According to the BBC, many people contribute to political debate by blogging.

The BBC reports that the increase in the number of households having broadband is one of the reasons Americans are embracing political debate, online. Perhaps, in the UK, with the speed of broadband set to increase and the cost expected to decrease, greater online activity will contribute to a healthy democracy.

Dangerous Ground

I’ve been following recent events regarding runway safety at Bristol Airport with a keen interest over the past weekend. My primary interest for following the issue is because my parents are due to fly from Bristol Airport later this week.

What initially started as a local issue, for the airport, soon escalated into a national issue, as more and more airlines, including Easyjet, decided to withdraw planes over concerns that planes were skidding when landing in wet weather.

The airport initially rejected claims that the runway was unsafe but eventually responded to pressure from airlines to close the runway and, over the last 24 hours, has carried out work on drainage systems.

According to the, Guardian, Bristol's problems were first highlighted on an internet forum, www.pprune.org, where pilots posted messages such as: "the middle point of the runway definitely seems dodgy.”

Although the runway has now been reopened, the issue demonstrates power and influence of new media and the need for PR practitioners to monitor new media as part of the issues management process.

Sometimes it’s good to switch off…

At the weekend, I left my mobile phone in the back of a taxi (and no, I wasn’t drunk). Once I discovered that I had lost my phone, panic set in. It felt like I had lost a limb.

After many unsuccessful phone calls to the taxi company, I called my network provider and asked for the phone to be barred. I was now officially “off the grid.”

Being without my phone made me realise, just how dependant we are upon new technology. Without my phone, I knew no useful phone numbers, could not be contacted by others and felt thoroughly lost.

This is a story with a happy ending though. Without going into all the boring detail, my phone was eventually found and returned to me, the following day. Needless to say, my faith in human nature, or at least Bournemouth taxi drivers, is now at an all time high!

After being re-united with my mobile, I immediately called my network provider and asked them to remove the block on the phone. This, I was informed, could take over 24 hours (I’m not quite sure why). It’s now Monday evening and my phone is still blocked but rather than feeling distressed and annoyed, I have been thoroughly enjoying the experience. Its been truly liberating, not being able to be contacted at any time of the day and it’s great, being able to go somewhere, safe in the knowledge that someone can’t call you to find out where you are.

I know that as future PR practitioners, we should be embracing new technology and that mobile phones are essential in today’s information age but after my experience, I can’t help but think that every now and then, it’s important to switch off.