Browsing around Youtube I watched a video titled 'Christopher McCandless Is No Longer My Hero'. I don't know why watched the video because i've haven't seen the movie 'Into the Wild' or read the book. However, the vlog flashed the phrase 'Happiness Only Real When Shared', which a quick Google search reveals that it is one of the main revolutions of the story. The reason i Googled the phrase after seeing it flash up on the Vlog is because i instantly disagreed with it.

Now, like i said, i haven't seen the movie and so don't understand the path that led him to this Philosophy, and like any philosophy i'm happy to let the thinker have their own views as long as i am able to respectfully disagree - and in this case i do. However, reading so many posts on different forums it is clear that so many people agree with this philosophy and will not accept that unshared happiness has any meaning - rendering it unreal. And rather than trying to fight the internet i thought it more constructive to head over to PF to hear your thoughts (slightly baffled that this subject has not been posted about already considering the popularity of the movie and the discussions on other forums).

To me it's obvious, irrefutable, absolutely discernible that happiness can be just as real to the lone soul as it is to two souls sharing the same moment. I'd also say that happiness is just as real when you experience something for yourself and never share that experience in conversation with another person. I remember a paragraph from the book 'The End of Absence' in which the author is standing on top of the Eiffel Tower watching a sunset, and he feels a pang of loneliness. To overcome this, he takes a photo of the sunset (perhaps even a selfie) and sends it to his husband (not a typo). He then goes on to explain how he then felt like his experience was now somehow a little cheaper, somewhat ruined that he couldn't just be in the moment and experience happiness.

Of course, i understand the phrase - happiness [is] only real when shared - i've had moments in which i wish someone was there by my side to share my happiness. But, as i've grown older and formed my own philosophy of happiness, i've learned to embrace said feeling - souls by my side or not. Not only am i experiencing the things that are happening around me, i am also experiencing myself from the inside. It comes down to that old saying, if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is there to hear it, does it make any sound? Granted, trees don't have ears so they don't hear themselves fall, but when a human falls and cuts his or her knee open, we certainly feel the pain from the fall and the negative emotion that are associated with that pain regardless of whether someone else is there to witness it. Why then, would happiness be any different?