It Gets Better Every Time

In other news, a recent post by Lewd Bob rightfully named and shamed some wanker psychologist for claiming that the coffee we drink can 'tell' us something about ourselves.

In the midst of the comments, many of you came to the protection of Psychology, and so you should, but my argument at the time was that popular psychology saturates the media, and it is mostly, from my vantage point atop my soapbox, fucking rubbish.

The latest example is some group that examines people's Facebook status and is attempting to glean the mood / morale of entire nations.

"The creator of the index, Adam Kramer, a social psychology student at the University of Oregon (who happens to be 72 percent happier than the average American Facebook user) explains on his blog; "every day, through Facebook status updates, people share how they feel with those who matter most in their lives. These updates are tiny windows into how people are doing." From this angle it looks like social media could be the brave new frontier of the science of happiness."

Facebook the science of happiness? A 'social psychology' student getting the headlines? I rest my case. The whole article is here.

In other other news, vale Ruby Hunter.