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Annotated Bibliography

Colaianni, C Alessandra. “Fun.” The New England journal of medicine vol. 382,5 (2020):

402-403. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1909360

In this article, Dr. Colaianni discusses an experience she had while studying as a

Medical student. Mid-surgery, the surgeon asked her, “Why do we do surgery?”

Colaianni went on a tangent listing the patient and the symptoms but mid-way the

doctor said “No, we do it because it is fun.” After a few more minutes of surgery, it

was revealed the patient’s cancer had resurfaced. Guilt flooded Colaianni, “fun?”

She thought with tears in her eyes. She felt ashamed to use such a childish word

at great stakes. Then it clicked minutes after, she was happy with her job in

general, the times that were fun and were not. This helps me understand how

you can be happy even in moments that are not fun. In the form of being thankful.

While it is great to have fun, it is in the moments that are not fun that a deeper

meaning of happiness can be experienced. Adulterated happiness in a sense, is

the reality of life and that happiness is not always pure and can come with other

things and feelings. A beautiful reflection of the reality that is life. According to the

article, people can be happy with and without fun. The difference is pure and

mixed happiness. What is not understood is how can one find a way to discover

happiness in moments where it is not as apparent? Colaianni was able to do so

in such a quick fashion. Others it could take days, weeks, months, even years. Is

there some sort of way to make that feeling known more prevalent?
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DuLong, Jessica. “Stop Trying to Be Happy. Instead, Have More Fun.” CNN, Cable News

Network, 15 Aug. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/08/15/health/fun-habit-wellness/index.html.

In this article, there is an interview between Mike Rucker and CNN’s Jessica

Dulong. Dr. Rucker had said to not try to be happy and instead have more fun.

Rucker argues the easiest way for you to find happiness is by having fun. He

says that happiness and fun are two different things. Fun is less thinking and

more doing while happiness is more result-focused. If you worry too much about

the result they will not show up. If you just do it, the results will come naturally.

This is arguing for the claim that fun is needed to be happy. Dr. Rucker says that

if you are trying too hard to be happy you will never find it. Rucker argues that if

you just implement more natural fun into your life you will find happiness along

with it. Can this fun that Dr. Rucker be described as an “empty fun”? Trying to

have fun and if unsuccessful, then what would you do? It just leads to nothing.

Kiell, Norman. “The Myth of Fun.” The Journal of Educational Sociology, vol. 35, no. 1, 1961,

pp. 1–10. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2264584. Accessed 16 Oct. 2023.

This article was written in the 20th century giving a perspective on the use of fun

back then. Kiell states that in the “age of anxiety” everyone is searching for some

sort of happiness. We try to find that happiness by using the words “fun” and

“enjoy” in every aspect that we can. Life is filled with so much “fun” in

experiences and material items that the meaning has gone pointless. It would not

be possible to be happy if everything was fun or enjoyable. He proceeds to say

that if we are able to come to terms that everything does not have to be

enjoyable or happy then we will be able to actually experience happiness and

escape the ”age of anxiety”. Throwing the word and experience of fun around, it
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will not hold the same value. Therefore all the fun that is being had does not

amount to any happiness due to its loss of value. How can one be happy with

fun, if fun is everywhere and meaningless? This scenario, you can be happy

without having fun then. You would have to find peace with the situation instead

of trying to have fun in order to find happiness. How does one come to terms with

the dissatisfaction around them? It is simple to say, in order to be happy you

have to become okay with things that make you unhappy.

Oh, Travis Tae. “What Makes You Happy? Why Fun Matters to Your Happiness.” Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 23 Sept. 2021,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-pursuit-fun/202109/what-makes-you-happy-why-f

un-matters-your-happiness.

Tae Oh and his friend tried to figure out what made them happy in life. Thus Tae

Oh did research to figure out. He stumbled upon Aristotle and Epicurus. Aristotle

said that the reason for happiness was eudaimonia, living a virtuous life. By living

a virtuous life, one would make genuine connections, enjoy and be good at what

they do, and be morally right. This could be the meaning of happiness, but

Epicurus disagreed. Epicurus proposed ataraxia, being free from anxiety and

fear. To live life to the max and try to not be conquered by fear. Tae Oh says that

fun is a modern-day reflection of ataraxia. This relates to my question because it

gives a history of fun and happiness together. It was known since back in the

accent times that fun and happiness are separate entities. If you try too hard to

be happy you cannot be happy. If you have fun you will be happy. Can you be
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happy without having fun? In ancient times this was believed yes because you

could live a life of eudaimonia and not experience ataraxia.

Sumnall, H., Bellis, M. A., Hughes, K., Calafat, A., Juan, M., & Mendes, F. (2010). A choice

between fun or health? Relationships between nightlife substance use, happiness, and

mental well-being. Journal of Substance Use, 15(2), 89–104.

https://doi.org/10.3109/14659890903131190

In this experiment, around 1350 people from all over Europe were surveyed. All

members of the survey group ranged from 16-35 and all participated in the

European nightclub life on a consistent basis. Many of the survey group reported

that they did use drugs and the ones that did report this also reported feeling less

satisfaction in life, and suicidal tendencies. The portion of the group that reported

taking drugs said that they prefer having fun over their physical, emotional, and

mental health. After collecting all of these results, the findings were used to try

and find ways to implement help into these people's lifestyles. This article helps

me understand the relationship between happiness and fun in terms of health. As

mentioned previously, many of the survey group reported that they did use drugs,

and the ones that did report this also reported feeling less satisfaction in life, and

suicidal tendencies. When analyzing this sentence I came to terms that these

people are not happy. Thus they are having fun and not happy which was already

established and this article confirms this. Now on the other hand, can they not

have fun and be happy? In a sense, the article speculates a confirmation. The

last sentence states that it is believed that if they stop this fun lifestyle, they could

be more happy in life. This goes into the fact of “empty fun”, it's fun to just do it

not for happiness. This leads to the next topic of questions that were left

unanswered.
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