By Mayank Jain:
‘Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.’- Albus Dumbledore
I always thought that we could find happiness just by ensuring someone else’s happiness but thanks to the advances in technology and deterioration of the human values, we are now finding it through a website.
#100HappyDays, the latest fad among the Indian youth is one testimony of the fact that we are always looking for happiness no matter which way it comes. The simple initiative has taken the social media by storm and half of all posts I see on Facebook or Tumblr are with hashtag #100HappyDays and it is indeed heartening to see so many people happy at the same time.
The simple challenge is to be happy for 100 days in a row and show it off on social media with the picture of whatever made you happy that day. That’s what the website tells you and this is the gist of it. So if a cute puppy on your way to work made you happy or you got a new book for yourself or if it is just good coffee in bed that made you cherish the moment, you post it on Facebook and share the happiness with the world.
The whole idea is very appealing since we do find ourselves stuck in quagmire of our daily routine and it is very difficult to find a moment of peace and happiness in the competitive environment we survive at work and little peace we find in our relationships and this explains the reason behind so many people following it religiously.
The whole idea of living in this world is to be happy and if a little challenge can make you happy then it is the best thing in the world. The project was launched around the New Year and lots of people made it their New Year resolution to be happy for 100 days in a row.
I do have my skepticism about the validity of this happiness as social media increases the attention appetite of everyone and most of the pictures I saw in the last few days are becoming increasingly flashing intended to gain the most likes or make the most people jealous which in itself defeats the purpose of spreading happiness. There is a competitive spirit in some of us who are posting even more than 4 pictures a day of things that made us happy and it is like a mini competition to gather the most attention.
Nevertheless, anything that succeeds in making one person happy and harms no one, is a success for me. By the same benchmark, #100HappyDays is a boon and another innovation of internet that made our lives seem easier.
Being a reluctant photographer, I could not click a photo a day of things that made me happy but that didn’t stop me from being happy. However it is interesting to see how many of us can pass the 100 day test of happiness.