Bonum Certa Men Certa

More Technology Does Not Mean More Happiness

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 04, 2024

Giant snail in Singapore

Taking things easy(ier)

The so-called "World Happiness Report" is deeply flawed for many reasons and concepts such as "Gross National Happiness" equate man-made economics with sentiments. They even make up some acronyms for these pseudo-scientific things these days.

There's this consumerism-driven myth that buying more things will make one happier or that the more gadgets one carries around, the simpler life will become. I know from personal experience that it isn't the case and one can see the sadness in some very technology-rich countries, where people tend to be stressed, overworked, and closely monitored. If one was to look at the World Happiness Report 2024, looking at countries in particular, some of the least happy people live in Hong Kong and South Korea, Singapore, etc. are not even in the top 50. Japan is ranked lower than Russia. Tech-induced stress in Japan became such a big problem that it resulted in suicides and laws being passed to guarantee workers' right to disconnect (outside the workplace).

The famous colonial Raffles Hotel in Singapore, where the Singapore Sling cocktail was invented

2 decades ago I carried my PDA everywhere and used it for everything. It didn't make me happier, just less likely to forget or skip chores. Less than a decade later I recognised that it had become a source of more stress than calm. Now I leave this PDA on my desk and I barely use it. Away from keyboard (AFK) means away from all computers.

A decade ago when I traveled to Singapore I could very quickly see why people there were notoriously depressed. They work hard, live in ridiculously small spaces, and visits to the malls don't make up for a generally lousy lifestyle. Singapore may seem like a tech haven (or heaven), but having more tech isn't heavenly and Singapore remains one of the world's most surveilled societies.

For life to be "happy" (by some subjective measure or Western yardstick) it needs to be slower and technology tends to make everything faster, not slower. From an industrial point of view faster may be desirable, but human beings are not machines. Societies that treat their people like "cogs" will find higher anxiety rates.

Spiral Stair Case Looking Downwards

Singapore sky tree

Singapore's dystopian fake ('nature-like') trees.

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