Technology and psychological well-being      

Today I would like to promote “words of wisdom” from Technology and Psychological Well-being book by Yair Amichai-Hamburger. His book is one of few which I can agree with. And it is not rising river of  “but‘s” going throught the pages. In my opinion author intent to see a problem without a delegation of blame to others. It is honest, wise and accurate paper, definetely worth reading.

“Simplicity can be either sign of stupidity or genius. Judging from his closing words highlighting his overall message, well definitely he is NOT a nonsensical or simpleminded person. I would like to criticize his book, but simple cannot find strong disagreement points worth mentioning.” – Zbigniew

Toward a solution

One of the key aims of a democratic government is to promote the good life: A flourishing society where citizens are happy, healthy, capable, and engaged, in other words with high levels of well-being (Marks and Shah, 2005). Below we assess the main components necessary to promote the positive impact of technology on our well-being. We will discuss: recognizing the lighthouse;  the captain or the leadership story; and utilizing the lighthouse.. more in the book.

Our well-being has implications for every aspect of our society. It promotes sociability, generosity, creativity, activity, tolerance, health, altruism, economic productivity, and long life (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005).Therefore, promoting the well-being of citizens, both psychologicallyand physically, should be a major task for governments.While technology is tremendously important in modern society, it doesnot have any inherent value system, and it is therefore of pivotal importancethat technological development and use are regulated by a set ofethical standards. These standards should be taken from the unchangingvalues of human society that we have termed “lighthouse values” andshould be based on those factors known to promote the well-being ofpeople.The values we advocate are based on the work of Deci and Ryan (1985)and promote autonomy, competence, and relatedness.We have added an additional component, that of critical analysis.

A society which develops these values is likely to be more caring, less materialistic, and less selfish. In addition, it is also much more likely to be willing to act to eliminate the dangers we are facing through uncontrolled technology. It is important to note that, in contrast to the manipulation of society’s values by large concerns, there are an increasing number of examples of technology being utilized by individuals to promote major change in the world. One such example is the “We can solve the climate crisis campaign” under the leadership of Al Gore. This campaign spread its message by making sophisticated use of technological communication channels, including blogs, to recruit millions of volunteers worldwide in an attempt to force leaders to act on the issue of climate change (Goldberg, 2008).

This type of action shows clearly that technology can be used effectively to promote real values and make a better world. It also shows clearly that the

responsibility lies with all of us to make this happen.

The problem isn’t Internet; it’s what Internet help (allow) US to do.

Becouse nobody is stopping us from doing so, we would do it, it is our nature. Same way as we need law, government, leader. We need rules by which we know how to act. And on Internet there simple isn’t any, that should be our main concerns. It turn so called “freedom” isn’t so good for collective humans well-being.

source: http://www.amazon.com/Technology-Psychological-Well-being-Yair-Amichai-Hamburger/dp/0521885817

author: http://amichai.socialpsychology.org/