Influence of Television on People’s Happiness

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Television and series
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

An industry of entertainment can offer a vast range of cultural products that make people happy. It is not only films, television, music, and sport but also modern technology and social networks offering viral videos, computer games, and tweeting. The idea of mass culture influencing the development of society is closely connected with a concept of a need to be happy. Television is one of the most popular cultural products because it is capable to satisfy a person’s need for happiness.

When defining cultural products it is vital to understand their importance. Lamoreaux and Morlingis explain the necessity “to study cultural products are that they can contribute directly to people’s sense of “cultural consensus,” or “common sense.” […] people’s behavior is explained not by cultural differences in people’s internal values, traits, or attitudes but rather by people’s beliefs about what others in their culture value” (300). Therefore, cultural products are forming popular culture, and television plays a great role in this process due to its characteristics. Television is mass, global, and diverse.

Television and series

Television, and series, in particular, provide the pleasure that empowers its capability to satisfy the need for happiness. Casey Bernadette et al. suggest that “television is perceived as threatening by some moral guardians precisely because it is a site of pleasures that are not always or necessarily uplifting” (197). On the other hand, the content on television is usually seen as not high-quality culture as opposed to classical cultural products like books or even movies. The question is whether television being a mass cultural product is incapable to satisfy the need for cultural growth due to its entertainment. Is it possible to satisfy both needs: the urge for happiness and personal growth? It is highly debatable that impersonal analyses of such series as Suits or The Wife and The Third Man directed by Carol Reed is possible in these terms.

The diversity of television and series results in their globalization though. The urge to satisfy the need for happiness is global despite different cultural habits. It can be proved by the export of series. Miller describes different kinds of export “once having proven successful in their domestic market, telenovelas can be exported […] as the original production in the original language, as the original production for dubbing in foreign markets or […] interpreted and reproduced in a new culture” (202). This proves the universality of the need to be happy and they wish to share this experience at the same time.

Conclusion

Television is surely uniting people, and it gives them the reason to feel attached to the society they leave in. Hence, the ability to share your cultural experience is also the need, therefore, the satisfaction of this need makes people happy. However, the research of Twenge, Campbell, and Gentile shows that “the results are consistent with American culture becoming increasingly individualistic over the last half-century” (413). Therefore, the development of society changes its cultural values, and this can be seen and analyzed with the help of television as well.

I can not disagree with Mittel in his definition of television as “an enormously y profitable industry, […] part of democracy, […] unique creative form, […] mirror of our world” (2). Therefore, it is not a surprise for me that my favorite series Suits is ironically characterized by Bellafante as “gleaming sunlight is as much a character on these series as the actual spies and cops and healers. As if in receipt of an order from the Federal Communications Commission prohibiting inclemency, the standard USA series does not depict rain” (par.3). Sun makes me happy, not rain; and I wish my friends to enjoy this sun with me

Works Cited

Bellafante, Ginia. “Nothing but Blue Skies for a Fake Harvard Law Grad.” The New York Times 22 June 2011.Web. 02 July 2015.

Casey Bernadette, Neil Casey, Ben Calvert, Liam French and Justin Lewis. The Key Concepts, New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Lamoreaux, Marika and Beth Morling. “Outside the Head and Outside Individualism-Collectivism: Further Meta-Analyses of Cultural Products.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 43.2 (2012): 299 – 327. Print.

Miller, Jade L. “Ugly Betty goes global: Global networks of localized content in the telenovela industry.” Global Media and Communication 6.2 (2010): 198 – 217. Print

Mittel, Jason. Television and American Culture, New York: Oxford, 2010. Print.

Twenge, Jean M, W Keith Campbell and Brittany Gentile. “Changes in Pronoun Use in American Books and the Rise of Individualism.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 44.3 (2013): 406 – 415. Print.

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Influence of Television on People’s Happiness

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