#mappiness

[notanearlyadopter]

I have an app for happiness. Kind of.

It’s part of a scientific research project to map happiness, and several times a day at random it pings me to ask how I’m feeling and what I’m doing. It has buttons for every activity I have ever thought about doing and some I haven’t. Usually I have to click several items (for instance, unless commercials or Bruno Mars are on the radio, and I'm at work, I have to add “listening to music” to whatever I’m doing).

But there isn’t a button for writing. There’s one for “hobbies, arts, crafts,” which is what I have decided to use, but the first time I clicked “something else,” because none of their categories seemed to fit.

I’m starting to wonder whether I shouldn’t pick “singing, performing” too. Because that’s the way I feel when I’m creating a thing— that intuitive excitement tinged with anxiety. It feels like making music.

[burakpolat]

Measuring the Happiness : Mappiness

Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.[1] well, basically it is the life-source of human beings.

One of my friend who works for Mappiness told me about the idea conceptually couple months ago and after the beta testing phase i really think the core idea is amazing however i still think that with some additional social and user focused features would make Mappiness a killer application. (for sure mobility and game mechanics are also key concepts for the project)

For a successful e-venture, agility has a great importance; core concept will be fixed with more users after fixed core concept additional features should be added one by one. So I think with the Mappiness' growth, there will be more effective features for users. ( Also profitable for Mappiness ) 

p.s. Mark Zuckerberg had mentioned in f8 about Facebook's focus on happiness; if Mappiness makes the right moves, Mappiness and Facebook may rock together.

[better-brains-blog-blog]

The app that measures happiness

There are applications for almost everything and LSE researchers won't deny it.  They created Mappiness to study happiness and map well-being, thanks to the involvement of smartphones owners. Tens of thousands have already downloaded it, a much larger number of participants than they would have obtained by the usual means! Another interest is that data is collected over time, which is so valuable to researchers.  

Once downloaded, the application regularly asks its user to determine his state of mind at the time, the place where he is located, his business, whether alone or accompanied, etc. In return, the user can access a graph showing changes in its welfare. Researchers have already identified a few strong trends, such as a mismatch between happiness and the urban environment.

[makeinteresting-blog]

2 Months of Mappiness

So two months ago I read about Mappiness, a research project by the London School of Economics, that aims to continually plot people's happiness in relation to their activities, company, and location. Pretty cool I thought. So I downloaded the app, and after a little retooling (all the times/days of the week are London-time) I started plotting my happiness. The app sends push notifications to my iPhone three-ish times a day, to which I respond and record my happiness level, how relaxed I am, how awake I am, where I am, who I'm with, and what I'm doing. 

Well, two months and 131 responses in, there are some interesting psychological patterns I've noticed and wanted to share.

First of all, the most interesting thing I've noticed has to do with the push notifications - specifically getting them at inopportune times. I found myself getting annoyed that this inanimate object would be so rude as to ask me how I'm feeling at certain times. These times were usually high stress or just extremely busy, but still, there's something funny about getting miffed at an app that wants to know how you're feeling. It was sort of a "cmon, do you even have to ask?!?!" feeling. Hilarious, but true.

Second, I always exaggerate my relaxation level. I dont do it on purpose. It's just how I view it I guess. The past few months have been everything but relaxing, yet it indexes well higher than everything else. I dont know what to attribute this to, maybe subconsciously I'm trying to be more relaxed? Who knows.

Thirdly, my response rate is currently at 68%. This seems low to me, especially since I'm at 130 responses, which means I've been asked my happiness nearly 200 times. Sometimes I cant respond - I'm away from my phone, swamped at work, etc. Other times I see the notification and purposely ignore it. I think part of this has to do with my first point - the nerve of it to be asking me, again. But I also think part of it is the push notification itself. I keep the vast majority of push notifications on my phone turned off. If my phone vibrates, I want it to be for a text or an email or a call, and very little else. So while it's the perfect way to interact with people, I think I've been pre-dispositioned to dislike them.

Another thing to mention is the weather. I think there should be a weather filter (or live read) included. Personally, weather can have a large effect on my mood, and I think it would be interesting to see that included in the info.

All the above said, Mappiness is pretty interesting to use, especially over a substantial amount of time. I think it's a good thing for people to be asked how they're feeling on a semi-constant basis.

If you want to check it out for yourself, head over to this website.