Can Apps Create Happiness

Can Apps Create Happiness?

Pic from blog.teamtreehouse.com/the-business-of-apps

I love to investigate new apps.  When I think I've found one that can fill a void in my productive life, my hands start to sweat.  Adrenaline starts pumping through my veins as I watch with anticipation the download and installation status bar.  After having gone through this scenario multiple times, and having page after page of useless apps, I'm convinced apps equal disappointment.  The question of whether an app can make you happy comes down to the age old adage, can money buy happiness, or can anything outside of one-self make us happy?

As I introspect on my personal happiness, there are common emotions that stir in me the feelings of happiness.  

• The feeling of Powerful.  This is the "I've got my shit together" feeling.  I'm in control and am competent in what I do and say.
• The feeling of Passion.  This is the "Bring it On" emotion.  My ambition drives me to excellence.
• The feeling of Joy.  I love where I am, and who I'm with. I'm content to be.

Although no apps can create these emotion in me, they can be great tools in accomplishing the tasks that bring these emotions about.  Applications in and of themselves cannot make me happy, but they can give me a sense of empowerment and control that can assist in the happiness process. 

Applications don't have the ability to know if we are happy, but they could be used as a way of  monitoring our emotions.

Track Your Happiness is a new scientific research project that investigates what makes life worth living.   Using their app, people are able to track their happiness and find out what factors – for each individual – are associated with greater personal happiness. People can also contribute to the scientific understanding of happiness.  With an iOS device, clients are notified by email or text message and asked to report how they are feeling and what they are doing. They are able to decide when and how often they want to be contacted. 

Although I could see myself throwing my iPhone across the room if being asked how I'm feeling in a heated moment, I could see how self-monitoring happiness could empower our personal choice of happiness.

©2011-2013 ~MosiKashi http://mosikashi.deviantart.com/

To this day I don't know how he did it, but Steve Jobs brought joy to my life.  His passion and drive to make the world a simpler and better place inspired me time and time again.  He engaged me in the same emotions that drive my happiness.  An Apple conference keynote address became like a General Conference for me.  I hung on every word and felt those same emotions well up inside me every time I held one of his innovative devices.  I wish I had the Steve Jobs app on my phone.  That could stir the emotions of happiness and get me moving in the right direction on a daily basis.

I think that is why I'm constantly looking for the next great app.  The one that will fill in that next piece of joy.  I have been through hundreds of crazy apps that I never even visit anymore.  It's interesting that the relationships in my life, like the one I lived vicariously with Steve Jobs, are the things that bring me the greatest happiness.  Yet in my search for that next joyful app, I spend more and more time away from the relationships where joy is found.