Society & Culture / Sociology / Social Research & Ethnography

Why Measuring Happiness Ruined It: The Lie Behind Well-Being Data

Understanding Well-being Data: Improving What We Count for Happier Society

Susan Oman

Can visiting a museum truly equal a $3,000 pay raise? In this breakdown of Dr. Susan Oman's groundbreaking book 'Understanding Well-being Data: Improving What We Count for Happier Society', we expose how modern institutions turned human joy into a weapon of bureaucratic control. Slide 1: The Happiness Illusion GDP is skyrocketing, but our anxiety is at an all-time high. Why does national wealth make us feel miserable? Slide 2: Weaponized Metrics Numbers are not neutral facts. From call center surveillance to poverty lines manipulated by politicians, data is routinely reshaped to dodge accountability. Slide 3: The Audit Society Welcome to the era where trust is replaced by spreadsheets. Mandatory wellness questionnaires do not care about your mental health; they exist to protect executive bonuses. Slide 4: Algorithms Ruining Lives Context collapse is real. See how automated scoring models crushed students during the UK A-Level scandal and why Google Flu Trends completely failed. Slide 5: Culture on a Spreadsheet Economists actually claimed viewing classical paintings equals thousands in cash. Discover how fabricated well-being formulas justify budget cuts for working-class communities. About the Author and Book: Dr. Susan Oman is a Lecturer in Data, AI, and Society at the University of Sheffield. Drawing from her background in cultural policy and workplace metrics, her book 'Understanding Well-being Data' pulls back the curtain on how governments, corporations, and algorithms quantify human experience—and why reducing human suffering to numbers destroys the very well-being it pretends to measure. Stop outsourcing your emotional reality to cold dashboards. Watch this presentation to see through the mathematical illusions running modern society.