<body><div>Expectations create frames for experiences. When they aren’t met, we feel disappointment, and when they are met, we feel satisfaction or some degree of reward. But where do these expectations come from? Marc Champagne of Kwantlen Polytechnic University uses phenomenology (the science of experience and consciousness) to indict smartphones and social media for altering our ability to reasonably perceive our worlds.In a chapter from his new book Phenomenology and Phaneroscopy: A Neglected Chapter in the History of Ideas, Champagne examines how social media and smartphones can lead to less happiness and satisfaction for their users. Champagne argues that having constant access to exceptional photos, videos, etc. can cause us to view our own lives with dissatisfaction. This in turn can create a loop in which we, bored with our “unexceptional” surroundings, seek out the exceptional through increased smartphone use and engagement with social media. This loop robs us of our ability to appreciate the ordinary. He writes:“We are always looking for something. We rarely just see. As a result, we foreground some aspects of experience at the expense of others. Pausing the machinery of such goal-driven perception is the mission of phenomenology.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0iNV4w_0w9DvWyz00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0iNV4w_0w9DvWyz00" width="1000" height="667" ></figure>You've landed on a MIA journalism article that is funded by MIA supporters. To read the full article, sign up as a MIA Supporter. All active donors get full access to all MIA content, and free passes to all Mad in America events.Current MIA supporters can log in below.(If you can't afford to support MIA in this way, email us at [email protected] and we will provide you with access to all donor-supported content.)</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

How Smartphones and Social Media Shape Our Expectations and Happiness

Expectations create frames for experiences. When they aren’t met, we feel disappointment, and when they are met, we feel satisfaction or some degree of reward. But where do these expectations come from? Marc Champagne of Kwantlen Polytechnic University uses phenomenology (the science of experience and consciousness) to indict smartphones and social media for altering our ability to reasonably perceive our worlds.