Happiness? It's about people, not possessions, author says
Published: 7:45am, 22 Feb 2025 Updated: 7:47am, 22 Feb 2025
Joy is often presented online as being tied to status, material possessions and personal achievement.
Scroll through your Instagram feed and you will see flawlessly curated snapshots of 'happiness': gleaming watches, fast cars, designer handbags.
American positive psychologist Stephanie Harrison sees this as an outdated vision of happiness. She wrote New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That's Got It Wrong to challenge the way we think about self-fulfillment.
The book, which became an international bestseller, draws on hundreds of studies to offer a life-changing guide to finding happiness. Stephanie Harrison is a positive psychologist and the author of New Happy: Getting Happiness Right in a World That's Got It Wrong. Photo: Alex Johnston It has sparked a movement dedicated to redefining what it truly means to be happy; the book's dedicated Instagram page, instagram.com/newhappyco , has 955,000 followers.
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