Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Hot on Facebook
Think You're Pretty Hot? You're Probably Wrong Study finds we have inflated vision of ourselves »

iPhone App Gauges Your Happiness

And finds that daydreaming is tied to bad moods

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 12, 2010 11:40 AM CST

(Newser) – Turns out the all-powerful iPhone can also moonlight as your personal therapist, by way of the "Track Your Happiness" app. The app pings users at random times during the day, asking how they're feeling and what they're doing. Researchers looked at the responses of 2,250 adults and found a link between daydreaming and unhappiness: Responders said they were daydreaming almost 47% of the time, and the daydreamers were more likely to say they felt down in the dumps, Mashable reports.

But that doesn’t mean daydreaming equals unhappiness, an expert cautions in the Boston Globe. In fact, letting your mind wander helps solve problems, and may be important to creativity. “Even if there are times when mind-wandering causes one to be unhappy, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not the thing that one should be doing,” he notes. For those who want to play along, here's the website for the app.

Jill Small, of Los Angeles, holds her iPhone 4 during an interview with the Associated Press,  Friday, July 16, 2010 in New York.
Jill Small, of Los Angeles, holds her iPhone 4 during an interview with the Associated Press, Friday, July 16, 2010 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
My TakeCLICK BELOW TO VOTE
5%
61%
5%
2%
2%
25%
To report an error on this story, notify our editors.
COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
MicheleMoore-Happy1
Nov 15, 2010 1:03 PM CST
Thanks Matt, for your balanced and sane approach to this story. A wandering mind is a result not a cause of unhappiness. How we feel about what we are doing determines our happiness and our levels of attention. When we are enjoying what we are doing we pay attention to it. When we don't particularly enjoy what we are doing our mind wanders. When we focus our time and attention on things we like and find pleasurable we feel energized, enthusiastic and excited. When we focus on things we think are bad we feel sad, angry, anxious or dissatisfied. Our Focus Determines Our Feelings. See: http://HappinessHabit.com and http://Creating-Happiness.com MicheleMoore Happy1 ~ HappinessHabit.com
 

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Timelines   |   POPSUGAR Tech   |   Business Insider   |   HuffPost Entertainment   |   NewsOne