Se sei felice tu lo sai ... spegni la tele!

Mi è venuta in mente quella canzoncina di quando eravamo piccoli:

Se sei felice tu lo sai, batti le mani etc

Ho trovato questo studio dal bellissimo titolo "What Do Happy People Do?" che analizza la correlazione tra felicità e attività svolte, in particolare guardare la TV.

Arriva a due conclusioni apparentemente opposte tra loro:

1. Television viewing is a pleasurable enough activity with no lasting benefit, and it pushes aside time spent in other activities—ones that might be less immediately pleasurable, but that would provide long-term benefits in one’s condition. In other words, television does cause people to be less happy.
2. Television is a refuge for people who are already unhappy. TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it. Furthermore, chronic unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitating and can interfere with work and most social and personal activities, but even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV. In other words, the causal order is reversed for people who watch television; unhappiness leads to television viewing.

Rimane quindi irrisolto il dubbio se guardare la TV faccia diventare meno felici o se la tristezza spinga a guardare la TV.

La mia conclusione: comunque guardare la TV è una cosa abbastanza triste!