Digital Strategy continues to enter more facets of our lives. As the holiday season is upon us, many of the lights and displays on peoples’ houses and storefronts are now controlled digitally. An automated Santa sliding down a chimney in the mall, controlled by a server or PC, or even an app on a tablet or a phone, is the new reality. In the past these were unwieldy electronics, requiring an engineer or two on-site, and possibly a 24 hour on-call technician for the hardware. Now these are run-of-the mill digital processes.
Much joy comes from the festive lights, the Santas, the displays of the holiday season. The ball that drops in Times Square shepherding in the New Year is not only the culmination of a digital operation, but is also available as an app you can download for your IoS or Android phone. The Times Square Ball has its own website.
But what about the rest of the year? Is there digital joy to be had? And if so, then how so?
The obvious digital delivery systems of joy would be media. Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo and other video services, Pandora, Spotify, iTunes and the many music services bring joy to millions of people on a daily basis. But is there a cost other than financial? Is there a trade-off, is personal data or other lifestyle information being traded, knowingly or not, with permission granted, hidden in the Terms of Services, for these pleasantries?
These are issues John C. Havens delved into as he researched his book, Hacking Happiness: Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking It Can Change the World.
Happiness or joy, or as John puts it, wellbeing, may be quantified via digital means such as an MRI or other measurement tools. John says,
DIGITAL JOY
By Dean Landsman