Dr. Gilbert’s TED talk on synthetic happiness changed my perspective on many topics, but also strengthened my opinions about certain issues. All my life, happiness is one thing that I have always given most importance. From simple things like “does wearing this shirt make me happy?” to life-changing decisions such as “will this college ultimately make me happy?”, I’ve based most of my decisions on how happy I would be if I were to pursue the action. Like Dr.Gilbert mentioned in his talk, however, “natural” happiness is not always reached, and it does lead to disappointment.Although I’ve always believed that time brings happiness, I have come across this idea of synthesized happiness. Even the simple statistic about how the happiness of a letter winner and a paraplegic is the same after a year simply blows my mind. If I ponder on that, however, it actually makes sense. Life is not always about chasing things which could possibly bring you happiness, it is about finding happiness in the things which are already present in your life. I am a strong believer that every thing in life has a purpose. Sometimes it may take time to realize what the purpose was, but it does not mean that the purpose was missing. Synthesized happiness, to me, seems like a form of how people accept the purpose behind events that occurred in their lives. For example, Dr. Gilbert talked about a man named Moreese Bickham who was imprisoned for no fault of his own, but upon release, described it as a “glorious experience.” I’m sure no one has high hopes and dreams to one day be imprisoned for no reason, but somehow this man has learned to accept the purpose behind this incident in his life. I believe synthetic happiness can also be described as being grateful. In the video, Dr. Gilbert talks about the fact that a freedom to choose is the greatest enemy of synthetic happiness. Freedom to choose will always result in a constant deliberation of what could’ve happened if I were to chose the other option, whereas only one option results in gratitude, even if time is required to reach that stage.
Dr. Gilbert certainly did seem credible as he used many resources and experiments to back up his results and findings. By doing so, his word was backed up with clear evidence which gives him credibility to be a reliable resource.
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