The Happiness Effect: How Social Media Is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost

Freitas (Sex and the Soul), a nonresident Notre Dame research associate and Publishers Weekly contributor, takes a thoughtful look at dilemmas arising from young people’s social media use. Her opinion, based on interviews with 184 students at 13 colleges in the U.S. and 884 survey responses, is that there are more insidious problems than rampant bullying and sexting. These users, the first generation to come of age with social media, are under pressure to appear perfectly happy. Students have the “notion that one must carefully craft, cultivate, and curate” their public profiles. This pressure can “warp how students see themselves,” lead to loneliness, and encourage nasty anonymous behavior. Students’ voices make up most of her book, which contains chapters on the importance of likes, selfies, and smartphone use. Her most interesting chapter, however, is the conclusion, which comes up with eight guiding principles for the use of technology based on Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics. Freitas makes a well-reasoned argument, albeit one based on a pretty specialized population sample. The question that still remains is whether social media is to blame for this social pressure to perform happiness or merely the medium by which it spreads. (Feb.)