Opinion Today: Our joyless quest for maximum happiness

The American obsession with individually defining and boosting happiness may be making us miserable.

View in browser|nytimes.com August 10, 2024 There is a great deal of disagreement on how even to measure happiness and fairly weak evidence that doing so makes us significantly happier. Stephan Dybus By Jessica Grose Opinion Writer I'm someone who enjoys tracking my physical self: I aim for 10,000 steps a day and I work out with a heart rate monitor. But sometime last year, I started noticing that some of the apps that measure my physical fitness had added emotional tracking, too. These health apps weren't content to simply record my flights of stairs climbed, they also wanted me to input my state of mind. They could ping me with alerts to ask about my daily moods and fleeting hourly feelings, fueled by the idea that by graphing my emotional life, I could figure out what makes me happiest. Tracking your emotions isn't new, but smartphones have made the practice ubiquitous; app stores are overflowing with products claiming to maximize our bliss for a couple of bucks a month. But feelings aren't the same as steps and heart rate and liver function. It turns out there is a great deal of disagreement on how even to measure happiness — and fairly weak evidence that doing so makes us significantly happier. Less considered is the question: Could tracking happiness make us feel worse? To attempt to find the answer, I tried the tracking apps myself, interviewed positive psychology researchers and historians of emotion (it's a thing) and read many, many books. I also talked to a charming young man, who tracked his own feelings at 15-minute intervals for years, about what he gets out of the process. Can the search for meaning ultimately be found in a spreadsheet? Read my essay to find out. READ THE FULL ESSAY HERE Jessica Grose Are We Happy Yet? The American obsession with individually defining, tracking and boosting happiness may be making us miserable. By Jessica Grose THE WEEK IN BIG IDEAS Morgan Hornsby for The New York Times Tressie McMillan Cottom What's Happening in Louisville Could Solve a Housing Crisis An organizing effort could set a template for helping the nation's poorest and marginalized Americans find stability. By Tressie McMillan Cottom Saehan Parc Guest Essay Population Growth Isn't a Progressive Issue. It Should Be. There's more to the issue than what JD Vance says. By Victor Kumar Erin Schaff/The New York Times Pamela Paul Harris Might Become the First Female President, but Keep the Focus Where It Belongs Stop all the talk of breaking barriers and glass ceilings. By Pamela Paul Abbie Parr/Associated Press Guest Essay Democrats Have Needed Someone Like Tim Walz for Decades The Minnesota governor fills a decades-long geographic messaging gap for the party. By Sarah Smarsh We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Games Here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle and Spelling Bee. If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Opinion Today newsletter from The New York Times. To stop receiving Opinion Today, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018