Happiness is contagious - but is it contagious online?

NVDL: My guess would be no.

Obesity and smoking habits spread socially as well. Interestingly I seem to be having a positive impact in the sense that my girlfriend has quit smoking, now her brother is too, and he is no trying to lose weight too. If he succeeds perhaps her mom will be next....

"You can save your money," Christakis said. "Being around happy people is better."

clipped from news.yahoo.com LONDON – When you're smiling, the whole world really does smile with you. A paper being published Friday in a British medical journal concludes that happiness is contagious — and that people pass on their good cheer even to total strangers. American researchers who tracked more than 4,700 people in Framingham, Mass., as part of a 20-year heart study also found the transferred happiness is good for up to a year. "Happiness is like a stampede," said Nicholas Christakis, a professor in Harvard University's sociology department and co-author of the study. "Whether you're happy depends not just on your own actions and behaviors and thoughts, but on those of people you don't even know."