ople on social media is the possibility of falling into the trap of hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation, a term coined by Brickman and Campbell
(1971), refers to people’s tendency to return to a previous level of happiness and well-being after a temporary positive or negative experience. It is possible that the additional pleasure and happiness obtained from being able to share one’s happiness on social media and to influence other people will wear off over time. Then it could cease to have its positive effect on people. In such a case, one would expect the overall levels of collective subjective well-being to drop in the future. However, even if this does happen, people will still be able to pursue a lifetime of happiness by engaging in new forms of communication and sharing.
In the end, the question is: is it ‘The happiness of a lifetime’ or ‘A lifetime of happiness’?
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