For my blog I want to focus on the theme of happiness. I hope to publish a combination of stories, quotes, interviews, challenges, images, videos, conversations, and reflections on this topic.
Last semester I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, which was recently ranked the happiest country in the world by the United Nations. While I was abroad I became very preoccupied with this idea and curious about what the Danes might be doing differently from the rest of the world. Maybe there isn’t one right answer to this question, but it seems to me that it is something worth exploring. One way I would like to explore this is by simply asking people what makes them happy. I intend to do a number of interviews and for this blog to showcase a variety of different voices and opinions. I am also very interested in figuring out what kind of little things people can do on a daily basis to make their days a little happier.
I have additionally always kept a folder on my laptop with pictures, videos, stories, etc. that I can use to cheer up people when they’re having a bad day. I envision this blog as becoming an even larger extension of this folder and something I can go to when I want to brighten someone’s day.
Quite a few of the blogs I examined while researching current trends in this field of “happiness blogging” focused a lot on the field of positive psychology. Positive psychology is essentially a field of study dedicated to helping people become happier. My blog may differ a bit from several that I examined because unlike some of the blog authors I do not have any background in this field. I think because of this my posts may be more informal, and less academically based. For example, one blog I looked at called, “The Happiness Institute” was created by a professor who has three degrees in psychology and a PH.D. However, seeing how these bloggers incorporated positive psychology into their posts has motivated me to see if I can learn more about this field and use its principles in some of my own posts.
Furthermore, I think my blog will differ from the majority of blogs I looked at because I want images to be a large part of my blog. For example, blogs like “Delivering Happiness” were very textually based and had few images. This blog had very long articles, and each post was formatted in a very similar way. In my blog I plan to vary the style and length of my posts.
The blog that I would most like to model mine after is “The Happiness Project” because this blog has a very colorful, yet simple and clear layout. It additionally does not have any distracting advertisements and all of the different sections of this website are clearly labeled. It also has a lot of creative little features that have provided me with some inspiration for my blog. For example, there is a feature that allows you to sign up for the “Moment of Happiness: A daily happiness quotation in your inbox”. There are also “projects” you can sign up for that challenge you to be proactive in creating your own happiness. I think that this is a great model for me to follow because it makes this blog very engaging and it challenges readers to participate in the authors project.
Liz Bruno
Liz,
I really like this idea! I’m really curious to see how it turns out. This proposal left me wanting to know more, especially about what kinds of questions you are going to ask people. Will it be just Dickinson students? Could be interesting to use the whole community because you’ll get a smorgasbord of stories. I think it would be interesting for you to look into positive psychology and maybe test some of their theories out and blog about that? Maybe that deviates from your main idea too much. This is definitely a blog that I would want to read though and I think the combination of all your inspriations will turn out nicely.