Last Thursday Gators learned about being thankful in advisory. All advisory classes were required to watch the video on whether being thankful makes you happier. But does this scientific experiment really mean anything in day to day life? The Gator’s Eye decided to look further into this by asking students and teachers their opinions on giving thanks.

Being thankful is a quality that many of us were brought up with. It has always been a part of my life since I was a young child. A simple “thank you” from someone you are sharing with is always very nice for them. Mr. Olson, the chorus teacher of Green Level High, said that “[Thankfulness] is important so that you can show others how much you care about the people you love.” When a person takes the time to be grateful for your actions, it shows you that you are having a positive impact on others. Ms. Achilli, a Freshman English teacher at GL said, “ There’s a small percentage of people that can do good without needing a thank you. Those people are the humblest people on Earth and they are few and far between.” Most people need the encouragement for motivation for continuing their good actions. 

When you tell someone “thank you,” it encourages the person receiving the thanks. But it helps you too! In the advisory video that we watched by the Science of Happiness, we learned that “the person that was the least happy when they walked into the room walked out the happiest in the end.” We saw that after expressing gratitude to people they care about, all of the people’s happiness levels went up. Freshman Diti Tantotra thinks that “[Being thankful makes you happier] because you have more things to be happy about and you appreciate the things around you.” Achilli also said that “Positivity, which you acquire from being thankful, is just like a disease (of course, without the negative side effects), which spreads all inside you and then ‘contaminates’ the people around you.”

Studies show that the U.S.’s happiness levels are at an all-time low right now. Could that maybe change with a simple thank you?