On the internet, one idea often leads to another and another..... until a few hours have gone by and I wonder if I've missed any appointments or neglected to take care of urgent business. Whew! Time flies when you're exploring the mysteries of life. Today's mystery is brought to us by "Edge Third Culture" and the annual question for 2008: "What have you changed your mind about and why?" Deep.My mind is shallow though, and I find myself wondering about customer services, specifically the services I'm supposed to be getting from earthlink. Last night, I was getting download speeds of 500 kbps vs. 1500 kbps almost a third of the speed for which I pay. As far as I could tell, the modem and router were working fine, so I accessed the support area - only two options, call them or "chat" with them. I chatted with them and went through their standard check list which eliminates the problem areas. We determined that the modem and router work fine - tedious, but had to be done to prove to them that the problem is on their end. The tech chatting with me said he/she/it would email a copy of a trouble ticket and take care of the problem. I am still waiting for the email, but - download speeds are now around 1300 kpbs. In the virtual world, confirming a chat or repair or just about anything is pretty sloppy and the problem with this lack of communication is that I still don't believe it's fixed. Without an earthlink explanation, I'm not sure why the problem existed or how they fixed it. The service works better, however, so I will not complain until it fails.
Am I satisfied? Yes - no one has time to "chat" with ISP techs on a consistent basis and with earthlink, problems are rare and are resolved quickly. Am I happy with earthlink? No. I want that email.
All of this satisfaction/happiness thinking led me to the short commentary by Daniel Kahneman, "The Sad Tale of the Aspiration Treadmill" published by "Edge." He is a renowned psychologist, best know for his research on decision making and risk and he talks about his difficulty in proving that experienced happiness is a greater measure of overall well being than the quality of a person's living circumstances.
"Conditions that make people satisfied with their life do not necessarily make them happy." Kahneman concluded, and his research further dispelled the prevailing notion that people adapt to their economic circumstances making these circumstances less important in the "well-being" equation. Recent results of Gallup's World Poll and its conclusions on global "well-being" places emphasis on the circumstances of people's lives (e.g., wealth and living standards) and on their experiences which made them feel good or bad. A universal benchmark of well being is the availability of work - something basic, not always a source of happiness, but essential.
...One thing leads to another, and here I am blogging about it. As the new year begins, it is good to think about our economic and lifestyle circumstances and about those experiences that make us feel good. There is always the desire for more money and higher social status, tempered with the desire to stop and smell the roses - I may be changing my mind about one or the other this year. It's all good, imho.
