Smiles Around the World

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93GKn68VNoI

One of my favorite television shows is Ellen Degeneres' talk show. I love watching it because her jokes and pranks always makes me laugh and I know many other people feel the same. The attached video clip from one of her shows really reminded me of this class. While interviewing the women of the USA Hockey team, they said that the image of Ellen's smiling face on the flag (pictured here) was received positively by people from countries all around the world. As one team member stated, the team met many people at the Olympics that would "light up" whenever they saw Ellen's face on their flag. This is the exact definition of emotional contagion that we discussed in class, and Ellen did not even have to be physically present to share her smile. Ellen's positive attitude on her show, to her employees, and viewers has helped to spread her message of kindness and happiness around the world. As was mentioned in the Ted Talks video that we watched at the beginning of the year, the more we smile and the bigger our smiles, the longer and healthier our lives will be. If this is true, then the world is definitely better off watching Ellen, or at least smiling.