Sharing “happy” information
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Published online on July 28, 2015
Abstract
This study focuses on the sharing of “happy” information: information that creates a sense of happiness within the individual sharing the information. We explore the range of factors motivating and impacting individuals' happy information‐sharing behavior within a casual leisure context through 30 semistructured interviews. The findings reveal that the factors influencing individuals' happy information‐sharing behavior are numerous, and impact each other. Most individuals considered sharing happy information important to their friendships and relationships. In various contexts the act of sharing happy information was shown to enhance the sharer's happiness.