ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how most ubiquitous microchips—smartphones—can both support and subvert well-being. It looks at near future, in which this advancing technology could be used to more effectively promote the Good Life. Extremely successful technology developers have recently voiced concerns that their rapidly adopted products may be undermining human well-being; as Twitter cofounder Evan Williams put it in 2017, "The internet is broken." The chapter discusses self-determination theory as a framework for understanding the conditions under which people could be most likely to find happiness in a world where basic needs are met and work is no longer a necessity. Sensors may also make it possible to detect happiness levels automatically, enabling the deployment of interventions at key time points—as well as the evaluation of their efficacy. The research reviewed three key mechanisms—distraction, negative social signals, and substitution—through which powerful microchips that keep us constantly connected may actually undermine feelings of social connection and happiness.
