Can social media make us happy? When Dr. Donna Freitas set out to interview university students across the United States about social media, she found happiness to be a recurring theme in those conversations. When students talk about social media and their smartphones, they do so in a way that measures their happiness – or the appearance of happiness, for an online audience. In this lecture, Donna Freitas will address the major findings of her national (USA) study – from happiness and the ‘professionalisation’ of social media. Freitas will invite us to think about how we can respond to the issues that social media and our smartphones raise. We will explore a question that Freitas’ students pondered through her research: What does it mean to have a healthy relationship with social media and our smartphones?
Dr. Donna Freitas is a researcher and writer of nonfiction. Her publications include, Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance and Religion on America’s College Campuses, (Oxford Univ Press), and most recently, The Happiness Effect, (OUP). She received her Ph.D. in 2001 (Catholic University), and has been a professor at Boston University and the Honors College at Hofstra University.
