Social scientists disagree about the relationship between material prosperity and ‘happiness’. It’s an especially lively debate in China where material well being has been on such a persistent upward trajectory.
Taking just the prosperity-marker of ‘digital life’ as a specific variable Xiaoqian Zeng from the Jinan University and Fan Zeng of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics wanted to see if increasing smartphone penetration in China (and, the services these provide) had resulted in greater overall happiness?
They took data from four household surveys in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 and where better to conduct a study than the largest and fastest digitizing society on the planet?
First, the good news. Access to more digital services resulted in survey respondents claiming a greater level of life satisfaction.
The even better news. This was a nationwide phenomenon with no difference between urban and rural residents. Moreover, the biggest gains were among the poor which, the researchers surmise, is due to the democratizing nature that ubiquity of services implies (Jack Ma most likely listens to the same singers as migrant workers in Jilin?).
To that last point, it seems one of the biggest factors leading to better life satisfaction was improved entertainment options. Users also noted work times had been shortened due to the inherent efficiency of a more digitized life (something Mr. Ma probably wouldn’t approve of!).
You can read the paper in full via this link Happier Digital Lives?
Happy Sunday