While the mentions this year didn’t reach pre-pandemic volumes, they did surpass those of recent years. With the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in 2020 and the war in Ukraine starting in 2022, it’s not all that surprising that people might not have been in the mood to discuss happiness online at the time.

This year, however, there’s a clear uptick in mentions. Perhaps we’re feeling more optimistic this year? Or maybe this year’s theme: “Be Mindful. Be Grateful. Be Kind.” resonates more as more people have taken to social media to talk about it.

What makes people happy?

Leading a happy life is one of humanity’s most desired goals.

It’s no wonder that when searching for ‘happiness,’ Google returns over 1.7 billion articles.

And the need to improve one’s life seems ever on the rise. According to Google Trends, search interest for ‘well-being’ reached a 5-year high in 2022, and interest remains at a record high in 2023.

So, what makes us happy? According to the research project Mappiness – a happiness study counting over 3 million responses from over 60,000 participants – the top activities that make people happy are:

1. Intimacy / making love
2. Going to the theater / dance / concert
3. Visiting a museum / exhibition / library
4. Sports / running / exercise
5. Gardening
6. Singing / performing
7. Talking / chatting / socializing.

The list encompasses a solid mix of human interaction, physical activity, and stimulation of the mind, and emphasizes how important these aspects are to our well-being.

How do people talk about happiness and activities online? We analyzed online conversations such as “makes me happy,” “my happiness,” or “I’m happy” and broke the mentions down into the most mentioned activities.

The top five activities in these conversations are: 1) ‘listening to music,’ 2) ‘working out,’ 3) ‘intimacy,’ 4) ‘doing a hobby,’ and 5) ‘cooking/eating.’ ‘Listening to music’ is number one, but compared to the previous time frame, mentions decreased by 22%. Mentions around ‘dancing,’ ‘gardening,’ ‘shopping,’ and ‘socializing’ also dropped in the same period.

‘Watching movies/going to the cinema,’ ‘intimacy,’ ‘being creative,’ and ‘traveling,’ on the other hand, became more prevalent than in the previous period. With 85% of emotion-categorized mentions expressing joy, ‘being creative’ is the activity people talk most positively about.

Here’s what Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, likes to say about leading a creative life:

“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life.”

This idea is reflected in online conversations too. People share their happiness about being able to express themselves in creative ways, that they are happy with how their creative project has turned out, or how they’re making progress in learning something new.

Others express happiness when being inspired by the creativity of others.

What makes us unhappy?

Now that we’ve looked at the activities that make us happy, let’s take a quick look at the opposite end of the spectrum. What gets in the way of our happiness?

Online conversations about unhappiness are more common on weekdays than on weekends. The average mention volume is the lowest on Saturdays and Sundays.

‘Work,’ ‘financial problems,’ and ‘stress’ are the three main topics in unhappy conversations, with ‘work’ being, by far, the most talked about. Apart from problems with jobs themselves or with people at work, ‘money’ and ‘pay’ were the main topics of conversation.

Mentions of ‘unhappiness’ and ‘financial challenges’ increased by 21% in the last twelve months, showcasing that inflation and the rising cost of living have taken a real toll on how people are feeling. Read our consumer trends report for more insights on that.

The Mappiness project mentioned earlier echoed those findings when they identified ‘working’ as one of the top two activities making us unhappy, only surpassed by ‘being sick in bed.’

Wrapping up on a happier note, here are three tips for fast-tracked happiness:

1. Listen to music
2. Make a ceramic mug (or something else creative)
3. Do any activity but with other people

Or, follow the lead of this Twitter user:

What should we cover next?

Is there a topic, trend, or industry you’d like us to feature in the Brandwatch Bulletin? We want to hear your ideas to make sure our readers are getting what they want. We may even ask to interview you if you’re involved with the topic.

Send any and all ideas to [email protected] and let’s talk.

Thanks for reading

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The Brandwatch Bulletin team