Facebook and Philosophy

"Facebook is a force that has changed the way we engage with the world." 

~Soph Laugh

An Experiment

It started as an experiment, a promise to myself. To search for wisdom, find my truth, and stick to it. So, I started a blog. Very shortly into my Socratic exploration, I had an epiphany. I liked humor and I enjoyed poking fun at that which we call "knowledge."

I was convinced the path to enlightenment was hidden in the paradoxical things that make us laugh the hardest.

An indecency decently put is the thing we laugh at hardest. ~Cicero

Happy Thoughts Travel Fast (HTTF) was born ... and along with it, the public identity known as Sophy Laughing (Soph Laugh, for short).

Starting on April 17, 2011, I traveled with Socrates in search of wisdom, posting my philosophically inspired humor articles on Facebook, today's Agora of Athens. In doing so, I uncovered what seems to be the spirit of the times, with all its impulses that drive society forward, no longer separated by unbridged chasms of space.

What did I learn?

People across nations believe in following their heart's desire without overstepping the boundaries of right.

This mindset reflects a Confucian view of truth in relation to duty. Recorded in the journals of Confucius's pupils, the Analects state that Confucius thought education was the key to everything: A person should be so deep in study that he forgets to eat, so full of joy in learning that he ignores all practical worries, and so busy acquiring knowledge that he does not notice old age coming on.

Education was the process whereby civilization, and the minds and bodies of those privileged to enjoy it, breathed and lived.

According to onlinemba: 57% of FB users have "some college" and earn between $50-100k USD annually. From this perspective, there seems to be a correlation between people who value education and personal wealth, but not at the cost of losing touch with friends and loved ones (and themselves).

A Truth Soothsayer's Convention

One of the chief complaints on FB is the propagation of false information. Each day freshly transcribed versions of subjective perspective are emotively expressed. Similar to language used in newspapers, political speeches, advertising copy, literature and conversation, typical banners include:

Facebook (Unspoken) Laws

Like the first five books of the Torah, or Jewish Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament, Facebook has it's own set of laws ... instruction, teaching, and guidance.

Good advice earnestly shared is the basis of public posts on anything from yoga and vegan diets to hopes and dreams, for ourselves and for our growing together global community.

No longer exiled from our neighbors, with a simple scroll of the screen we can now peer into someone else's world ... and with a simple click, transmit something of our own in return.

United by a passion for family, well-being, and higher meaning, 1.79 billion people are united by a new type of education: Societal Learning.

The Third Way

Human advancement drives development, which over time evolves and changes in association with our collective and individual successes and failures. It seems clear to me that no matter the economical, political, legal or intellectual institutions we erect for sustainable development, FB and other social media sites are the modern day Agoras, the place where society and economy rest and meet - and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Transforming Truth Into Money

Facebook's is making more money than ever. Between July and September 2016, FB revealed that it made $7bn in revenue - a 59% increase from 2015. The average revenue per user was thus $4.01.

With FB's market value about $350 billion and estimated to someday be worth a whopping $1 trillion, one tangible truth I uncovered in my philosophical quest was that independent of what FB is or is not for each user: modern-day agoras (social media platforms) remain one of the most impressive business models ever created. Our species have been meeting in squares and centres since the dawn of socializing.

The Power of "like" is a Societal Game Changer

Facebook demographics are evolving societal class structures. In 2015, 56% of society fell into the social category of low income, 22% were somewhere in the middle, and only 7% in the upper category. Societal classes are thus divided into three:

1. Upper class
2. Middle Class
3. Lower Class

However, thanks to social media, we now have a 4th category: The Connected Class.

The Connected Class transcends typical income groups, connecting people by common interest. Whatever one's individually held truth, the Connected Class is now a formidable group, with the power to influence perspectives on the global economy, our systems of government and the laws we enact.

Laughter connects you with people. It's almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or sense of social hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy."

~John Cleese

With Facebook accounting for 5.5% of all time spent online (in the U.S. in November 2015), it is no wonder that Facebook and other global social programs, such as WeChat is changing the way we 'think' about world, which in turn affects how we engage with the world.

Which brings me back, full circle back to my Socratic-inspired quest for wisdom, and whether or not enlightenment could be found in a cookie. In a way, enlightenment really was found in humor - in the sprinkles on the cake - simply because I discovered what humor meant to me and how much I truly value its healing force.

But to understand humor, I had to practice humor. To practice humor, I had to kick back and relax and share some jokes with a few thousand of my closest online friends.

Conclusion

Facebook is its own philosophy: A system of philosophical thought on the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially in relation to each person's place in society.

Facebook users are Socratic in the sense that each post offers an opportunity to explore virtue and what it means to live a good life. No doubt Socrates would have been on Facebook had it been available to the Ancient Greeks. I wonder how many followers his posts would have touched or inspired, and whether or not he would have unfriended Aristophanes for publishing The Clouds.

Happy Thoughts Moving Onward

Thank you to all who have followed my journey into humor.  For those who know me best, you know that good humor is ever-present in my own world. Admittedly, it took some deep soul searching for my brain to take humor seriously, but after doing so, the theories I had coming into the venture proved correct ... and I couldn't be happier about that. ☺

About humor, I learned this: 

1. Humor really is infectious. 
2. Humor does lighten burdens, inspire hope, and connect us to others. 
3. Humor increases our insight, keeps us grounded, focused, alert, and happy. 
4. Laughter is a universal language that we all speak, that stimulates both sides of the brain. 
5. Finding the humor in a situation enables us to understand the more important messages our serious brain does not immediately register. 
6. Feeling good enables us to remember things longer. 
7. We all learn more when we are having fun. 

Writing this blog has been a creative exploration in imagining and sharing thoughts that make me laugh, smile, or think. I hope it has been an enjoyable experience for those who have followed with me down the humor rabbit hole. 

As I move on from public humor sharing, the joke lives on. Good humor will follow me back into my professional world, onward into my personal life, and hopefully contagiously into the lives of the many people who laughed along with me.

Exploring and sharing humor on social media has broadened my mind and thinking like no other activity could ... meditation, rumination, philosophizing, theorizing, nor strategizing could yield what a simple laugh can produce. This is something I hope I never ever forget. 

Life has many complexities, many twists and turns, ups and downs, and things that make you feel as if the world just twisted your inners outside for the whole world to see. In other words, life can be unpleasant, to the extreme. But for those who maintain a good sense of humor (an ability to laugh at life and ourselves without self-deprecation, cynicism, or sarcasm), humor offers a much needed respite, a time out from the seriousness life can produce in our hearts and minds. 

When I started this journey I was in need of a little humor in my life. My professional persona was overshadowing my personal enjoyment of life. While I have worked diligently to make time for sharing jokes and posting in my blog under the auspices of humor, I have experienced a paradigm shift in my own awareness of how I present myself to the world. In other words, I was letting my ideal of what it means to be a professional overshadow the joy I feel inside of me. 

I used to believe that I needed to be serious to be taken seriously, when in reality, diligence and hard work have nothing to do with being serious. Being serious takes us away from the fun and enjoyment of living. When we see the fun, we see the many possibilities we can create. When we see the humor in a situation, we let go of limiting thoughts. The combination is what creates success. Being serious only impedes it. 

Being serious shrinks our brains

There is absolutely no reason to focus on serious thoughts. Come what may, I would rather be called silly or considered ridiculous than be called serious, ever again. Being a naturally analytically driven thinker with a penchant for precision in language, I know I can come off as dry, even if I am smiling on the inside. 

Sharing humor publicly has allowed me to let my hair down and show the world what is behind an otherwise reflective, determined, businesslike exterior. Even though I am taking a break from my regularly scheduled humor program, I do hope to someday publish a book of this fun-filled amazing adventure. 

Thank you again to all who have followed along and made me laugh harder than any joke I ever shared ... 

Humor is definitely best when shared !!!

Nothing is Funny in Itself

People who are already inclined to laugh contribute a favorable condition to the social nature of humor. Starting from a cheerful mood, they allow humor to rise among them without impediment or judgment and they accompany it to the surface. Were it not for the personal guidance of humor, nothing humorous would be recognized. 

The guidance of humor is the special quality humor has. A comic or text is not inherently funny, it must be discovered as such to elicit amusement - otherwise it goes unheard - recognized, perhaps... but not enjoyed. 

This tells us how important is the role of the audience to the humorous event. Nothing is funny without an audience, which indicates that humor is a quality of our own making. A maleable aspect within ourselves to constitute a notion of humor... of incongruities and novelties. 

Humor embodies an epiphanic behavior, an almost forbidden behavior to that compensatory reaction we have to feelings and emotions that internal and external stimuli evoke within us. Clearly, humor is associated with novelty - what we find amusing. 

I'd like to bring attention to my blog's rating. Some individuals do not react positively to images of peace and tranquility one encounters when Googling the keywords "peace" and "tranquility".  In fact, positive words like - LAUGH - BE HAPPY - SMILE - can cause physical discomfort for some individuals when they come across them; the very opposite reaction occurs for others...reactions of contentment, felicity, and joy. 

But what happens to humor when it includes an element of discomfort? 

(I say this because while you might have read the caption, the moment you saw this lego you CRINGED in agony and from your gut to your heart you instantly recognized how much IT HURTS to step on one of these legos - if this has never happened to you, then you are an exception. You probably read the heading and then remembered trying to pry these suckers apart - if you didn't have that reaction, you're over a certain age and did not play with legos growing up - nuff said.)

Early on in my exploration of humor I identified my comfort levels, my own "Happy Place". This "Happy Place" is far-reaching. It extends into the deepest crevices of the human mind to the furthest reaches of space-time and the nature of existence. It lands on popular lullabies and hides in the best hide-n-seek spots around. It is a reaffirmation of warm, positive emotions that define my perception of humor... it is my own being that corrects and creates humor out of nothing. 

It is me laughing at this Zen comic and relating how I said "we create humor out of nothing" to the "nothingness" of Buddhism....hehehe. 

Humor's out there... inside everyone - unless you have a humor deficiency. In which case, I recommend reading about the concept of humor itself. Explore the descriptions and imaginings of philosophers and mathematicians, alike. Marvel over the works of Bergson, Freud, Raskin, Berger, Fry, and others. Let a guide help you find out what humor means to you. 

Exploring humor may not, at first, impress upon you the relevance of humor, but stick with it long enough and you begin thinking in terms of funny, not funny... enjoyable, not enjoyable. Every subject that comes up is seen from this new perspective. Then, when you turn that humorous perspective inward, you laugh and take delight with yourself. All the irony and incongruities tickle us in the heart and we react in our stomachs, which pushes up air, which then escapes through our mouths and sounds a little like laughter. 

Song Lyrics Graphic

Social Shamans

Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball requires no introduction. This funny woman of stage and screen, along with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Bob Hope gave rise to an applause forever since known as the Hollywood laugh. 

Charlie Chaplin

There's something about these fun loving wisecrackers that roused a certain fondness, intimacy, and endearment toward them and their brand of humor. 

Buster Keaton

Their zest for life, friendliness, and proclivity for creating pleasure out of the mundane and ordinary bewitched an audience who became adoring fans. 

Bob Hope

Their charity, goodwill, and benevolence inspired in their audiences a fondness for humanity. While watching their antics, audiences felt closer to one another. Feelings like loneliness, sadness, and despair magically and effortlessly disappeared in their presence. Their romance with comedy and compassion toward the lighthearted allowed others to revel in it. 

No doubt, they were all handsome entertainers, but just what was it that made them so alluring, even endearing? 

They made the world laugh. While such a seemingly inconsequential thing, laughter can turn into a love affair with good humor. An instant kindliness toward charity and goodwill which results in instinctive expressions of lively amusement we affectionately call laughter. 

In notably distinct and unique ways, they all shared a penchant for adopting the underdog. An ability to delight even the most downtrodden individual on a real level that connected people in the most basic attributes of being human. 

In turn, we naturally attributed affectionate qualities toward them. This experience is what makes comedy feel personal. These social shamans had access to that part within us all where we feel most alive and an talent for bringing it out of even the most reluctant individual.

Ed Wynn was quoted as saying, "A comic says funny things; a comedian says things funny." The distinction being in the feeling that follows. An empty, nervous, or courteous laugh leaves audiences feeling entertained but not feeling good about themselves and the world. Whereas a hearty, spontaneous, lighthearted experience leaves audiences feeling relaxed, congenial, and sometimes even transcended. 

Laughter turns life upside down. Laughing allows us to forget about our problems. And then somehow, as if by magic, laughter reminds us that there's so much more to life than worrying. Problems get solved when we work together to solve them. There's no need to make ourselves feel badly along the way. 

The social shamans that inspired laughter throughout Hollywood and beyond, gave rise to a new wave of offbeat, experimental comedy. As a result, today's comedy is more observational and topical with strong political and cultural undertones. Fondness for yesterday's comics has grown into a friendly respect for those individuals who can break the spell of seriousness, inspiring us to do the same for others. With a little more laughter in the world, we could change the way millions of people experience life. 

Tina Fey

Jimmy Fallon

Changing the world...

one laugh at a time.

(✿◠‿◠)♫♪

Heuristic Humor

You play the tough, paternalistic regulator

and I’ll play the laissez-faire one named ‘Nacho Daddy’.

Heuristic humor studies is a "hands-on" or interactive approach to learning more about what makes people laugh. Understanding what makes people laugh involves specific expectations defined as conscious assimilation of one's fore-humor. To the humorous encounter with a novel, or unexplained phenomenon - be it a joke, a humorous event, or a funny question - we bring our experiences (our historical understanding of what's funny), which cannot be dismissed in the process of interpretation and understanding of what's funny. But that does not mean that we should allow things that aren't funny to be passed off as humorous simply because people laugh. These indefensible assumptions bias our understanding of what makes people laugh naturally. Heuristic humor studies mediates between fresh observation and comprehensive reflection.

From a humorously hermeneutical perspective, to explain a humorous experience, observations and analyses must be grounded in historical investigation. What I want to understand and express in this blog is how individuals define humor and how they set out to experience it. I form my observations about humor based on my reading of the major theories on the subject as well as a myriad of popular images, videos, songs, and literary works in circulation on the web. 

A simple image search for the word "funny" makes me consciously and painfully aware of how humor is often times used to mask the negative feelings associated with loss, which ultimately becomes humorous discourse for those who have experienced it.  However, I prefer to focus on the present, becoming more functional in what the world considers funny now without betraying my own sense of humor (and integrity supporting it). 

Such observations point to me a connection between humor and personal identity, vis-à-vis evolvement. In this respect, humor can either undermine or support our personal identity. To make sense of this humorous paradox, I resort to sociological and philosophical accounts, concentrating on the significant shifts, from an understanding of humor as a character flaw to an activity that promotes healing and emotional or behavioral adjustment. 

To define what is not humorous also requires an understanding of what counts as "normal" humor: the quality of being amusing or the ability to make people laugh.

But it is so much more. From a methodological standpoint, my interest in humor is to entertain myself whilst simultaneously generating defensible assumptions that will allow me to proceed with an analysis of humor that is convincing (or at least, humorously intriguing) and theoretically sound. My contribution lies in entertaining others along the way and in showing how existing views of humor can be amended and functionally integrated into a developing model that allows me to define humor in dynamic terms, as a process, rather than a core or a feature. 

It's not a bug; it's a feature.

Admittedly, my "soft" (Sophy "softly" laughing) modus operandi is more sympathetic to a relativist approach. This distinction polarizes my humor toward the positive expression of humor, often trying to define humor in accordance with an immutable personal trait. 

My sense of humor is embedded in social and cultural contexts with no hardened core independent of an interpretive process focused on the aforementioned goals (enjoying myself whilst simultaneously entertaining others). I strive to avoid the pitfalls of seriousness and negativity, refusing to participate in the downing of self by associating my humor with negative traits or features. 

This blog is an evolving interpretation of my own journey into humor... and how humor helps me grapple with solitude in the hearts of so many. Humorous discourse allows me to rewrite stories into tales with funny twists or nonsensical references that confirm one simple fact: laughter is a language we all speak.