A happy life is filled with frequent and substantial conversations with others, according to a psychology study reported in Science Daily this morning.

Greater well-being was related to spending less time alone and more
time talking to others: The happiest participants spent 25% less time
alone and 70% more time talking than the unhappiest participants. In
addition to the difference in the amount of social interactions happy
and unhappy people had, there was also a difference in the types of
conversations they took part in: The happiest participants had twice as
many substantive conversations and one third as much small talk as the
unhappiest participants.

These findings suggest that the happy life is social and
conversationally deep rather than solitary and superficial. The
researchers surmise that — though the current findings cannot identify
the causal direction — deep conversations may have the potential to
make people happier. They note, “Just as self-disclosure can instill a
sense of intimacy in a relationship, deep conversations may instill a
sense of meaning in the interaction partners.”

Does this mean that a day on Twitter blocks happiness?

Welcome to the new week.

First, a handful of posts that look at the employment numbers from last week. Then a couple of interesting media focused reads. And finally, The Super Bowl ads, because you’ve got to be current and up to date.

The Big Picture turns to pictures to put some perspective on the employment numbers: A collection of 10 charts that show show bad the job situation has been, how it has leveled off and where some of the bright spots are.

If we need credit to ease up to help drive new job creation, then we’ll need banks to start behaving differently. Business Insider shows, in 13 slides, how the bank market is consolidating, reducing lending to businesses and consumers and increasing purchase of government securities.

One of the interesting wrinkles in the overall employment picture is how resilient the market for college-educated workers has been. Americans with a BA or higher have just a 4% unemployment rate. (via BusinessInsider)

Jeff Jarivs has spent time with a lot of local media people over the past couple of weeks and published an important post that synthesizes a lot of what he’s been hearing and puts it in the context of the deep experience he has with Internet media. The conclusion: Don’t sell scarcity, sell service and results. The thinking is very compelling and important to read.

In the context of Jarvis’ comments, Barry Ritholtz’s dissection of the economics of his recently published, well-reviewed book is very instructive. The book doesn’t make you money; the footprint that the book gives you can create the overall value of your personal brand. But you’d better have a strategy for making money off that personal brand.

If you don’t have that kind of strategy and you write, you’ll find yourself in the position of working for virtually nothing, as Tony Silber of Folio: strongly observes.

The last little media tidbit: Josh Bernoff writes about Forrester’s recent decision to require its analysts to blog on Forrester’s platform and not build a personal digital footprint that competes with the corporate brand. It’s an interesting problem. If the economic value of content is diminishing because of the Internet dynamics, and people who have skill at writing need to be more distributed in how they earn a living, then can media enterprises — even high value enterprises like Forrester — reasonably demand exclusivity in terms of digital footprint?

And, finally, here are all the Super Bowl ads.

Sorry for the two-day absence on the Good Reads. (I just know there are a handful of you who look forward to these short summaries to fill out your day!) I’ve been traveling and working on preparing materials for our quarterly Board meeting next week, so haven’t been filtering things the way I usually do.

Here’s some of the things around the web that have stuck with me over the past couple of days:

The reliable CalculatedRisk takes today’s employment numbers and surrounds them with context and easy-to-digest charts. Click through and enjoy.

Alan Patrick gave a thoughtful presentation this week about the role of Social Media in the Enterprise. He cuts through a lot of the froth and looks at how social media tools can drive value in three areas: revenue creation, cost reduction and capital reduction. (via BroadStuff)

Mortgage bankers have been meeting in Washington this week and the dialogue has been interesting. There’s capital in the market to fund the private mortgage securitizations; the caution relates to external regulatory and policy factors. On balance, good signs for the regular and jumbo mortgage markets next year. (via HousingWire)

Interesting paper about the effect of the recession on “Consumption inequality” and “Income inequality.” Moral: Declining asset values reduce consumption, so the decline in housing values has affected consumption by the higher income quintiles to a higher degree. Of course, this reality is offset by the fact that the jobs shed by the economy have been concentrated in less skilled labor pools. (via Economist’s View)

The FriendFinder IPO just couldn’t happen. (via PaidContent)

Is Consumer social media a bad business? Alan Patrick reflects on the views of Bo Peabody. (via Broadstuff)

Research data from Nielsen that looks at how we consume TV content over the Internet. The current model is using the web as a solitary time-shifter. How will it change? (via NielsenWire)

Take a trip to the Mall of the future. A good exploration of how the technologies we currently have will be integrated in the retail experience. Prompts many thoughts about local, media, marketing and context. (via RetailTrafficMag)

The new meme? Cheer up. Mark Morford cajoles us at SFGate.com to lighten up and stop being so negative.

No lightening up for Paul Krugman, though. He’s been sharing blog posts at NYTimes.com about Obama’s budget submission. In this post, he wonders how freezing “that little wedge off to the left” is going to drive down the deficit.

Adam Singer shares some thematic points derived from building a Facebook fan page with more than 700,000 followers. The scale is outsized, but the approach and techniques are relevant for everyone. The starting point is actively leveraging a Community of Interest. (via TheFutureBuzz)

An interesting look at the relationship between personal income and personal savings. As the chart at the right shows, spending grew faster than incomes. Read the post to see what that likely means. (via TheBigPicture)

Robert Scoble has been doing a great job of tracking Google and pointing to where they might be going. In this post, he connects the dots on Google’s social and mobile activities. In essence, Google is going to reconstitute its vast footprint to create an open social network.

My colleague Todd Dubner uses the Yodle investment as a springboard for thinking about why our company, NCI, is able to retain its relevance in the local market.

So, you ask yourself, is the entire world of social networking focused in Facebook. No, it isn’t. Here’s a good essay from the CEO of myYearbook that lays out a way to think about building a private social network in a Facebook-dominated world. (via PaidContent)

David Carr of The New York Times suggests that everyone backs off the frenzy of what the iPad has or hasn’t and consider its monumental implications as a media delivery tool. The iPad, Carr says, changes the rules of the game. Let me add, although David doesn’t say it explicity, Steve Jobs just took the plasma TV off your wall and put it in your hand.

Greg at DigitalTonto tackles the iPad question less sententiously, but with equal passion for its viability as a media platform.

Here’s an easy list of 6 ways that Gen Y is different, with a marketing slant. (via MillenialMarketing)

Somewhat off topic, but a testament to human ingenuity: a Roman implement that foreshadows the Swiss Army knife. Imagine the complexity of the patent issues.

Hope everyone is having a great Friday. The focus of the good reads today? GDP, the iPad, why consumers are forcing the integration of marketing programs, and a pointer about getting your own personal web cred in order.

The Q4 GDP report is out. I’ll be posting on a couple of trends in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here is Calculated Risk’s quick analysis.

Some charts that break down the Q4 GDP results. (via TheBigPicture)

And finally, on the DGP front, Donald Marron shares his consistently lucid analysis. Bottom line: inventory growth was the biggest driver in GDP growth. Now, consumers just need to buy the things that are being made.

A chart to keep the recovery in perspective: we’ve been down for a while.

J.D. Salinger is dead, and his death is a reminder that he was alive. He said he was a writing who liked writing. He didn’t like publishing. That puts him at odds with a lot of us who are publishing without constraint (read Blogging.) In memory of, here’s an obscure anecdote. (via BoingBoing)

Robert Scoble gives a good take on the iPad and the surrounding eco-system. The question isn’t whether it will save media; it’s how the device will compete for the gaming experience, and how effectively it can chew into the netbook market.

Marketing programs have to be integrated to be effective: consumers are looking for message consistency and multiple touch points at any time.

Another social media case study from Ignite Social Media. This time, Yoplait. Great stuff.

To end your week, read this post from Adam Singer. If you want to be able to understand how to keep your brand’s marketing program at the center of the conversation, you’re going to have to learn how to do some of these technological things yourself. I give this point of view a big endorsement! (via TheFutureBuzz)

Have a great weekend.

Rupert Murdoch’s daughter says “Social networks are a tool with which we can tell our stories.” (Via LATimes)

An argument that says Facebook has developed so much scale as a social operating system, it’s created switching costs for users that are the equivalent of a barrier to entry. (via Reuters)

“The print reader of The New York Times spends on average 35 minutes a day reading that paper. But a visitor to the NYTimes.com site spends only 34 minutes a month there,” says industry-observer Ken Auletta at an industry event. That’s one thing that media companies have to learn how to change, he says in a wide ranging talk about the competitive advantage of Google and the focus imperative at traditional media companies. (via MinOnline)

Another interesting read from Greg Satell: how to apply social network analysis to your marketing strategy. Some arcane parts, but practical. (via DigitalTonto)

Calculated Risk looks at today’s unemployment numbers. (via CalculatedRisk)

Ezra Klein likes Obama’s speech and wants to see the proof in the pudding to come. I’m just wondering how everything gets paid for. (via WashingtonPost)

Three charts that show the discouraging trends in employment by the private sector during this recession. Very crisp presentation. Here’s a sample.

Brad DeLong lays out the options for driving employment and concludes there is one left: government hiring. Since government workers make up about half of the workforce, a very few are going to be working to pay for many. (via ProjectSyndicate)

Olivier Blanchard with part two of his discussion about managing a declining brand. Interesting and tart. (via TheBrandBuilder)

PaidContent digs in, with characteristic thoroughness, on the startling fact that Newsday has sold only 35 online paid sub. Interesting read with some comments from Newsday.

The Congressional Budget Office see the economy at a worst point in terms of jobs and debt, with stabilization and improvement occurring over the next two years. Brad DeLong shares the most salient charts from the Economic & Budget Outlook. (via Grasping Reality with Both Hands)

The inability to access credit continues to plague small businesses. You would think that this would be a fundamental focus of administration policy in order to protect jobs. On the other hand, consumption is down so receivables are down so the lending basis for most businesses is down. (via Econobrowser)

The apartment marketing community continues to have some of the most interesting and somewhat fact-based dialogues about the relative impact and value of different marketing channels, with a particular interest in the role of social media. Industry vet Mike Brewer is starting a series of posts that should be an interesting consolidation of the disparate topics around some observations from a MarketingSherpa research piece.

An argument that personal online reputation will become a bigger aspect of our social identity in the future. (via I’mNotActuallyaGeek)

If the situation is so dire, why are politicians acting like children, Tom Friedman asks. (via TheNewYorkTimes)

Alan Patrick summarizes and gives some perspective on the debate of whether the Venture Capital model is working as currently constituted. A useful proxy for broader equity investment classes as well. (via Broadstuff)

Has the golden age of Web 2.0 morphed into a world of walled gardens? What does it mean for your Internet strategy. Josh Bernoff gives Forrester’s perspective. Interesting relative to the “content will be free” and “free/freemium” debates. (via Groundswell)

This is an important and sobering perspective on the real estate market, shared by John Mauldin, and worth your time. It is an interview with Andy Miller of The Miller Frishman Group. (via TheBigPicture)

Paul Krugman offers a knee-jerk but firmly-held opinion of Obama’s proposal of a spending freeze. (via TheNewYorkTimes) Brad DeLong offers a lengthly analysis of Obama’s Hoover shift. (via GraspingRealitywith OpposableThumbs)

CalculatedRisk looks under the hood on the Case-Shiller numbers and see some good trending signs. (via CalculatedRisk)

Ezra Klein shares info about a jobs proposal developed by Charles Schumer and Orrin Hatch. Simple and productive. (via EzraKlein)

Olivier Blanchard looks at the hard truths of managing the marketing for a dying brand. Good read. This is the first of a series. (via TheBrandbuilder)

Two Forrester analysts lay out the blueprint for Apple to make the Tablet a breakthrough device. Interesting, but Apple probably already has a blueprint. (via PaidContent)

Great case study of how Xerox is using social media. 14 BLOGS!!! (via IgniteSocialMedia)

The drop in home sales wasn’t entirely unexpected, with the buyers pushing to close deals in November before they expected the tax incentive ran out. Market conditions are better than they were, but there are unanswered questions still ahead in the Spring. (via CalculatedRiskI

The financial markets reacted uncertainly to Obama’s proposal to remake the financial industry. Here’s a detailed explanation of what the reforms can mean. (via Economist’s View)

With social media moving up on the priority list, the PR/communications function has the potential to become more important and strategic within the corporation. (via SteveRubel)

MediaNews Group has been the model for tight financial management combined with solid newspapering skills. The company is restructuring its debt for more financial flexiblity, with entrepreneur Dean Singleton keeping control, reports say. (via PaidContent)

“Weak connections” can be valuable in driving your digital networking; don’t feel compelled to connect only with those people you can maintain a relationship. (via SocialMediaToday)

For publishing types, a good case study of implementing Drupal as a publishing platform and driving traffic and engagement. (via eMediaVitals)

We’ve all seen Forrester’s Technographic’s Ladder. Ed Boches suggests that a focus of your social marketing should be to attract the Creators, so that your brand will benefit from a broader content footprint. Interesting targeted strategy. (via CreativityUnbound)

The active core of Twitter is growing. Something about the service takes root. (via eMarketer)

Apartment shoppers go online at different times than home shoppers during the week. What’s that all about? (via BeingPresent)