Tech Happy Life

Tips and strategies to increase happiness and life satisfaction in a hyper-connected world.

Mike Brooks Ph.D.

When We Are Consumed With Anger and Hate, We Are Wrong

Feelings of anger and hate threaten to tear America apart. In order to help us heal and grow, we must first find a way to make peace within ourselves.

How Do You Improve Your Life in the New Year?

Are you ready for a better you in this new year? The foundation of change and growth rests on our ability to be flexible. We need to be fluid, like water.

Do Our Screens Make Us More Hateful and Polarized?

America has become more polarized, hateful, and awash in various conspiracy theories. With our trust in one another at a low, are screens partly to blame?

How Worried Should We Be About Screen Time?

We have many concerns about the effects of screens, especially on our kids. How worried should we really be about the harms of screens?

How Negative Partisanship Is the Enemy, Not One Another

Negative partisanship has grown to toxic levels in the United States. It is the shared enemy of both the right and the left. If we don't realize this, our democracy is in trouble.

How Do We Transcend the Polarization That Threatens America?

America is more polarized now than it has been in over a hundred years. If we don't learn to stop vilifying one another, we are in trouble.

What's the Key to Improving Our Lives?

Our unconscious need to impose order on an increasingly complicated world is causing suffering on individual and societal levels. It's time to level up our flexibility game.

What Is the Purpose of Life?

What's the purpose of life? Philosophers and theologians have argued about this for centuries. Here's an answer that also points to how we should live as well.

Why Republicans and Democrats Are in a Bad Marriage

The United States is pretty divided, with each side showing contempt for the other. Perhaps if we viewed America like a marriage, we'd make some progress.

How Politics Is Like Rooting for Our Favorite Sports Team

We'd like to think we have objective reasons for the support we show for our politicians, but it is much like rooting for our favorite sports team.

How Politically Biased Are You? Try This Quick Test!

Tribalism is part of our evolutionary heritage. Our ingroup bias skews our view of reality, but it is often hard to detect within ourselves. This short test can help you detect it.

Here's Why Tribalism Trumps Truth

We'd like to think we are objective in our views of reality, including our political beliefs and positions. However, tribalism trumps reality... and it always has.

Five Tips to Help You Survive the COVID-19 School Year

We are on the front-end of the Pandemic School Year. While there are reasons to be concerned, we can make it through this. These five tips can help.

What's the Root Cause of Many of the World's Problems?

We tend to view the world, including others, in ways that are not rooted in truth, but in our evolutionary history. This is causing problems, yet points to a solution too.

Why It Feels Like the End of the World, Even When It's Not

We did not evolve to live in the world in which we now live. This "evolutionary mismatch" explains many of the problems we experience, on both individual and societal levels.

Why Can't We Handle the Truth?

We feel compelled to understand the truth and reality because understanding our world has an evolutionary purpose.

We Need Truth More Than Ever, but It's Elusive

In an era in which "fake news" gets tossed around frequently, truth matters, and here is why we must pursue it.

Are Video Games a Waste of Time?

Many people claim that video games are a waste of time. However, when we examine this indictment more closely, we can see that it doesn't ring true.

Do Democrats Hate America?

There has been a lot of anger in the form of protests coming from the left recently. Some on the right accuse Democrats of hating America. Is this true?

The Promise and Problems of Being Woke

Many people are "woke" to the bigotry and discrimination that have been part of our history. Attempts to right these wrongs can create some problems too.

What Can We Do to Make the World a Better Place?

George Floyd's death has sparked outrage in so many of us. Sometimes it feels like the world is falling apart. What do we do about it?

Give Us Liberty, or Give Us COVID-19?

We have given up much of our freedom during this pandemic. While this saves lives, at what point are we willing to risk life for liberty?

Should You Worry About Kids' Screen Time in This Pandemic?

This pandemic is forcing us all to stay-in-place so that we won't catch or spread the COVID-19 virus. Our kids are on their screens more than ever. Should we be worried about that?

Screens Aren't Destroying Society — They're Saving It

Many people have said that screens are destroying our society. Right now, we should be grateful that we can benefit from our screens.

COVID-19 Puts Our Resilience to the Test

In dealing with the coronavirus, most of us are in uncharted waters. While we need to take this seriously, we should try not to panic. That can make a bad situation worse.

Are Screens Addictive? This Is Not the Opioid Crisis!

We often see headlines about how screens are addictive. We worry that we and our kids are addicted to our screens. Is that even possible?

Freeze This Moment a Little Bit Longer

Time doesn't stand still, although sometimes we wish that it would. But internalizing the reality that our time here is limited can help us appreciate it more.

The Fear of Screen Harm (FOSH): A Fear Worth Our Attention

There is one harm of screen time that people aren't talking about, but they should be. It may even be the main harm that screens are causing—and it is a paradoxical one at that!

Gratitude Beyond Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, but we, and others, can benefit even more if we have a daily practice of gratitude.

What Can You Do to Be a Better Version of You?

What can you do to be a better version of yourself? The inspirational Native American story of the "Two Wolves" might help you do just that.

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