Let’s first look at the three macronutrients – or essential elements – of happiness as identified by Arthur Brooks (2024) 

• Enjoyment: Different from pure pleasure, this is pleasure plus reflection and human connection. 

• Satisfaction: The pleasure derived from achieving a goal after effort and sacrifice, often fleeting or short lived. 

• Meaning: A sense of purpose or understanding the “why” behind your life. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] 

These three macronutrients of happiness can help us understand IL happiness based on the science that Brooks (2024) articulates. The third macronutrient – “Meaning” – is a key component. 

I will attempt to translate these three macronutrients of happiness to the IL discipline and draw a bridge between these two concepts – the Science of Happiness and IL happiness. This discussion attempts to identify the parallels of the macronutrients of happiness to IL happiness. Meaning, we are borrowing or sharing key concepts from the discipline of the Science of Happiness to better understand Information Literacy Happiness, based on the Science of Happiness. (Webber & Johnston, 2026, Chapter 1.2) 

A key point is the importance of recognizing that various disciplines can influence, provide structure, or ways to interpret knowledge as related to various dynamics (Webber & Johnston, 2026, Chapter 1.2). Since information is everywhere and located in all disciplines, the opportunity to learn and apply disciplinary knowledge related to information using IL for disciplinary elements is an important paradigm to consider. 

Let’s look at the three macronutrients of happiness (Brooks, 2024) and potential applications to IL happiness. 

Enjoyment – knowing information and knowing information in the context of human connections increases our information literacy happiness. For example: Knowing information for a gaming interaction with friends makes the information experience more enjoyable or knowing more about a financial principle to inform decisions results in an enjoyable information experience. 

Satisfaction – the pleasure derived from applying an information (knowledge base) to a situation increases satisfaction – if even for a moment. For example: The pleasure derived from taking tacit or knowledge learned previously to new concepts or applications either in professional, personal, academic or other context provides satisfaction in some way. This could also be experienced in information inquiry in a user’s health information search for understanding more about a certain medical condition, or a student uncovering pertinent information to the topic they are researching. When an individual locates information pertaining to a political experience – such as voting or a candidate’s platform, this can be a satisfying IL happiness experience. 

Meaning-(this is the BIG one) when translating happiness to IL- this is when we bridge the gap of understanding the “Why” behind – information meaning, and its importance to new concepts or various disciplinary knowledge, to enhance new understandings using concepts related to IL such as critical analysis. For example – when a person searching for health information understands more fully the implications of knowledge for health decisions, or a student uncovers research that connects meaning to other information on the topic they are investigating, or in a more general example of user information experience- a new path for navigating transportation from one point to another is identified that makes the journey more agreeable – financially, time, convenience, richer understanding, new knowledge acquired – it is meaningful to the user.  

This short article attempts to articulate the intersection of IL to other disciplines and research based inquiry – such as the Science of Happiness – and  the importance of articulating how IL is related to other disciplines (Maybee & Kaufmann, 2026, Chapter 1.1) and why this is important to understand.  

Exploring the intersection of the Science of Happiness, information happiness and more specifically Information Literacy Happiness more holistically allows for new understandings and interpretations of influence between and because of the ways information happiness is experienced by users for various reasons and in various ways and in various contexts. This article introduces the understanding of the essentiality of enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaningfulness– the three essential micronutrients of happiness to information of happiness. 

There is a richer, holistic understanding of these key elements of Information Literacy Happiness in the context of IL disciplinarity and as undergirded by the Science of Happiness! The future is full of opportunities for information happiness – within the discipline of IL, and as IL is experienced by users wherever they engage with information.