British Journal of Educational Technology doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2008.00880.x
Vol 40 No 6 2009
1135–1138
Colloquium
Does authentic happiness exist in cyberspace? Implications for understanding and guiding college students’ Internet attitudes and behaviours Sen-Chi Yu and Chien Chou Address for correspondence: Sen-Chi Yu, Department of Counseling and Applied Psychology, National Taichung University. 140 Min-Shen Road, Taichung 40306, Taiwan, R.O.C. Email:
[email protected]
Introduction Although some of the Internet’s negative impact on individual development and lives have been documented in recent years (eg, Chou, Condron & Belland, 2005; Kraut et al 1998; Suler, 1998), most of the users use the Internet positively for their personal advancement and life convenience (eg, Amichai-Hamburger & Furnham, 2007; Lanthier & Windham, 2004). The Internet indeed provides a rich environment that includes significantly positive aspects as well as negative ones and, when used appropriately, may greatly improve the well-being of its users (Amichai-Hamburger & Furnham, 2007). Concerning the study of psychological well-being, Seligman (2002) proposed the ‘positive psychology’ (also called ‘authentic happiness’) to integrate related studies about well-being and happiness. In view of this, we argue that the field of positive psychology should be incorporated into the research issues of Internet psychologists. Positive psychology: the real world and beyond? Positive psychology (Seligman, 2002) is a science about pleasant, engaged and meaningful lives. It has flourished in the last several years (Duckworth, Steen & Seligman, 2005), and hundreds of related articles have been published in scholarly journals as well as in the popular press (such as Time magazine). However, until now, the studies of positive psychology have been limited to the ‘real world’. We consider that the virtual world also deserves the positive psychologist’s careful attention. We propose that cyberspace could be a place that fosters authentic happiness. People use the Internet to fulfil their daily functions (eg, keeping in touch with friends, searching for information, keeping a diary) and, on an emotional level, perhaps to increase their own authentic happiness. We will clarify why scholars in the field of positive psychology should study cyberspace in terms of pleasant lives, engaged lives and meaningful lives. © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
1136
British Journal of Educational Technology
Vol 40 No 6 2009
Concerning the pleasant life (including well-being and ‘flow’ Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), extensively used Internet tools such as email, Skype and MSN facilitate our communications with friends and co-workers and extend our real-world social networks to virtual space. Such an extension of social involvement may well increase psychological well-being. Regarding the ‘flow’ experience of the pleasant life, some researchers (eg, Chen, Wigand & Nilan, 1999; Rettie, 2001) suggested that using the Internet can facilitate the occurrence of the ‘flow’. Several studies indicated that the concept of flow is useful for understanding online consumer behaviors, online game playing and motivations toward e-learning (Faiola & Voiskounsky, 2007; Hoffman & Novak, 1996; Pace, 2007). Concerning the engaged and meaningful life, Seligman (2002) stated that to have an engaged and meaningful life is to identify and exercise one’s own signature strengths and virtues. The meaningful life entails belonging to and serving positive institutions. It is believed that positive traits and emotions flourish best in the context of positive institutions (Duckworth et al, 2005). We argue that the Internet provides people with a space, besides the real one, in which they can identify and exercise their own strengths and virtues. Cyberspace provides many users with positive institutions, such as Web 2.0, Wikis and free online courses provided by universities. Moreover, ‘Internet altruism’ (cf. Turkle, 1995) is easily identifiable online, and such help among net users is totally free. Supporters of this altruism think that the Internet is a utopia to which they can dedicate themselves. In this sense, the Internet is a place that fosters meaningful life. The positive Internet use and college students Concerning the demographic composition of various Internet users, college students are noteworthy for educators. College students are usually early adopters and heavy users of the Internet compared with the general population. The Internet is a part of college students’ daily routine, in part because they have grown up with computers and the Internet (Jones, 2002). Moreover, from the point of developmental psychology, the Internet not only provides an outlet for expression and exploration of intimacy and emotion not available in traditional settings, but it may also help students adjust to the college setting. The Internet allows students to fulfil unmet intimacy needs and to explore social connections, sexuality and aspects of self that might otherwise remain hidden (Lanthier & Windham, 2004; Morahan-Martin, 2001). In addition to many pedagogical and psychological benefits, however, there are potential risks to college student users. Because of convenient Internet access, some college students are more likely to be Internet-dependent than others. It is a challenge of our educational system, including those of us in the helping professions, like psychologists and educators, to guide college students into using the Internet positively. To achieve this goal, the educational system should involve finding new perspectives for enhancing the psychological well-being and meaningfulness of the Internet users, which would become the focus for future Internet development (Amichai-Hamburger & Furnham, © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.
Colloquium
1137
2007). To clarify, it is essential to guide college students into finding authentic happiness and seeking positive psychological resources from the Internet. That is, finding pleasant, engaged and meaningful virtual lives in cyberspace is a challenge to students as well as educators. Conclusions and future plans As mentioned above, because the Internet may significantly help college students develop their human potential, fulfil their psychological needs and increase their wellbeing, the study of authentic happiness in cyberspace is emerging and crucial. To measure the constructs constituting the authentic happiness in cyberspace, we need valid and reliable instruments. Therefore, the future plan of our current project is to develop and to validate the Cyberspace Authentic-Happiness Scale (CAHS). In order to do so, theories and related studies of authentic happiness will be examined, available measuring tools will be reviewed, and extensive interviews with college students will be conducted. The hypothetical factor structures of CAHS, mainly following Seligman’s (2002) original idea, are the pleasant life, the engaged life and the meaningful life. The pleasant-life subscale measures positive emotions about the past (well-being, contentment and satisfaction), the present (flow and happiness) and the future (hope and optimism) in cyberspace. The engaged-life subscale measures the degree of identifying one’s own strengths and virtues, whereas the meaningful-life subscale taps the degree of exercising one’s own strengths and virtues. It is hoped that the theory of authentic happiness and validated measurement instruments will strengthen our understanding of college students’ Internet usage and attitudes and thus help educators in guiding them to live a better life in cyberspace. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the National Science Council of Taiwan for this research grant support under the contract (NSC-97-2511-S-001-MY2). References Amichai-Hamburger, Y. & Furnham, A. (2007). The positive net. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 1033–1045. Chen, H., Wigand, T. R. & Nilan, S. M. (1999). Optimal experience of web activities. Computers in Human Behavior, 15, 5, 585–608. Chou, C., Condron, L. & Belland, J. C. (2005). A review of the research on Internet addiction. Educational Psychology Review, 17, 4, 263–288. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper and Row. Duckworth, A. L., Steen, T. A. & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Positive psychology in clinical practice. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 629–651. Faiola, A. & Voiskounsky, A. E. (2007). Flow experience of MUD players: investigating multi-user dimension gamers from the USA. Online Communities and Social Computing, 45, 324–330. Hoffman, D. L. & Novak, T. P. (1996). Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations. Journal of Marketing, 60, 50–68. © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.
1138
British Journal of Educational Technology
Vol 40 No 6 2009
Jones, S. (2002). The Internet goes to college: how students are living in the future with today’s technology. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved December 25, 2007, from http:// www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=71 Kraut, P., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T. & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: a social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist, 53, 65–77. Lanthier, R. P. & Windham, R. C. (2004). Internet use and college adjustment: the moderating role of gender. Computers in Human Behavior, 20, 591–606. Morahan-Martin, J. (2001). Impact of Internet abuse for college students. In C. Wolfe (Ed.), Learning and teaching on the World Wide Web (pp. 191–219). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Pace, S. (2007). Play and flow: implications for online learning. Studies in Learning, Evaluation Innovation and Development, 4, 1, 67–78. Rettie, R. (2001). An exploration of flow during Internet use. Internet Research Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 11, 2, 103–113. Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York: Free Press. Suler, J. (1998). Adolescents in cyberspace. Retrieved December 25, 2007, from http://wwwusr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster.
© 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.
