The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost
Social media has become the dominant force in young people's lives, leading many to lament that young people share their each and every thought with the entire world. A new book by Donna Freitas, a nonresident research associate at the University of Notre Dame's Center for the Study of Religion and Society, argues that this isn't the case and that the idea of young adults being self-obsessed distracts from the real issues they are facing. Drawing on a large-scale survey and interviews with students on thirteen college campuses, in "The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost" Freitas finds that young people are overwhelmingly concerned with happiness and the pressure to look perfect online and, unable to achieve this impossible standard, they are anxious about letting the less-than-perfect parts of themselves become public. "The Happiness Effect" was published by Oxford University Press in February, 2017.