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The Sea

11:15 / 08.03.03

did anyone realise this, I never knew before but the air around the sea is full of negative ions that make us feel happy? I'd always wondered why people loved the sea so much.
negative ions

12:31 / 08.03.03

Yeah but I just stay clear of the sea, because of the sand getting everwhere and all the raw sewerage people pump into it.

12:46 / 08.03.03

Hmmm. Do love a good splash in the bath and it always cheers me up, so that makes sense. Does this mean people in seaside towns are happier than elsewhere. Do they feel sexier? I think Shortfatdyke should volunteer for testing so that we can be sure. And if the answer's yes, then we should all move to Cornwall.

12:49 / 08.03.03

I do love Devon and Cornwall though, I was just talking about Irish beaches.

12:54 / 08.03.03

difficult thing to measure,I live nearer the sea and feel pretty happy most of the time, the sky seems a lot brighter, so extra light could make us happier. I went to visit my parents this week, they live inland, it was a lot darker, and I did feel less happy, but then that was probably from staying with my parents.

15:01 / 08.03.03

I've always felt better when I'm near the sea.

Which makes me wonder why I currently live about as in-land as it's possible to get in the British isles.. hmm..

I'm probably talking out of my arse here, but I reckon somehow people have always understood that it's best to live near the coast - it seems to be where most of the biggest cities and highest population densities are a lot of the time.. just look at America: East Coast, West Coast and a load of vaguer, less famous places in the middle.

15:04 / 08.03.03

The sea makes me nervous. Swimming in it does (mostly thanks to Jaws - if I'm not worrying about coming face to disembodied eyeball with a shark's cast-off, I'm expecting to come face to face with something alive, big and scary), and I always expect something to come crawling out and grab me. In Dorset, near the Durdle Door, I once stood on a high cliff and watched the shadows play on the sea, imagining the shapes were caused by big fuck off sea monsters. However, watching 'Basic Instinct' the other day, I was thinking how lucky Sharon Stone's character was to live in the house on the cliff. So I'm of two minds about the sea. My dog loves it though, which is a big point in its favour - nothing more wonderful than seeing him frolic in the spray and roll around getting covered in sand.

16:12 / 08.03.03

I live in Chicago (bad positive ions everywhere in a big city!). But, I live less than a mile from Lake Michigan. Can those good negative ions reach me? Can they compensate for the city?
For those who don't know, Lake Michigan is fucking huge for a lake. It has 1,180 cubic miles of water. It's 118 miles wide by 307 miles long. It's an average of 279 feet deep, but at it's deepest is 925 feet. (Viva la internet!)

17:14 / 08.03.03

mmm, the water here in brighton is definitely not good for anyone.

My friend actually found a human arm the other day whilst taking a morning stroll on the beach with his girlfriend. Unlucky you might say, but the next week he found the remain top half of the cadaver.

Corpses, old needles and used condoms, do not make for the most pleasant of beach scenes.

Still, tourists seem to love it!

Goodness Gracious Meme

17:32 / 08.03.03

It#s not the most attractive of scenes, whiteriot (if i may?) but, I live near enough to be able to hear it with my windows open at times, and I *do* love it.

Partly I have a childish thing of not seeing the point of living here unless I live near the sea.. And walking back from the work at sunset along the seafront can't be beat...

17:39 / 08.03.03

I always feel better near the water. When I move this summer, I want to try and get an apartment closer to the lake. Even when I was in London, taking a walk down to the river always relaxed me and made me feel better. Living near water equals happiness it seems...

...Vancouver was the best, since you not only had the ocean to sit beside, but also huge mountains to look at while you were sitting there.

09:49 / 10.03.03

Xoc:
"Does this mean people in seaside towns are happier than elsewhere. Do they feel sexier?"

Yes, with the single exception of Portsmouth, where the City Council extract all the negative ions from the air, stuff them into carrier bags and burn them in a furnace before anyone can absorb them. The burning process chokes the city with thick clouds of nasty positive ions, which might explain why everyone in Portsmouth looks so bloody miserable and aggressive all the time. It all started back in the 80s when the wealthy denizens of Southsea complained about people walking along the front getting something for free.

11:10 / 10.03.03

I'm from the Isle of Wight, Ventnor specifically, famed for it's healing air. The sea is great in every way and I love it, I live inland now and miss the horizon, and the sound, but not the smell of rotting seaweed

I can confirm Saveloy's news about Portsmouth, I witnessed the positive ion burning going on when *UURK!*
THIS POSTER HAS BEEN REMOVED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE. DO NOT BE ALARMED, CONTINUE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS (PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL)

11:25 / 10.03.03

I vaguely remember reading that this is the same reason people sing in the shower, cos of all the ions in the cubicle. I might've dreamt this though.

11:30 / 10.03.03

Yeah this could explain a lot, I always feel better when I'm at the seaside, the wind from the sea just seems to blow the cobwebs out of my head. I also love the fact that staring out to sea at night means you can see the stars along with all the boats far out at sea. Having seen where BiP lives in Brighton I can only say again that I'm dead jealous

.
My family's always been big on the Ocean and water, comes from having a dad who was in the navy and both parents being into sub-aqua. I don't know much that can compare to swimming under the water over coral reefs and watching manta rays float by *sigh*

. Being driven around in a zodiac over choppy seas is also lots of fun.
Just wondering is there any other research on ions you could point us at?

12:49 / 10.03.03

You would get the negative ion effect from having a shower because apparently it's the falling water that breaks up the particles of air making the negative ions so you could create them just by turning on a tap! although I guess the sea is more effective because of loads of falling waves.
I don't know of any other research, though apparently Einstein did some, a friend just told me about the ions and I looked it up on the web, though the site I linked above mentions a book 'The Ion effect' By Fred Sokya, I have no idea what that's like.

12:34 / 11.03.03

but knowing about ions has destroyed the magic a little bit for me. Before all I used to know is the sea made me happy, I used to speculate about why it did, perhaps because looking out on the vast expanse of water made me feel how small I was and how big the world is or because there's a free edge where the land stops. But now in a way the magic's been ruined, because the good feelings got by the sea seem to be nothing but chemical reactions. I guess this could be true for a lot of things.

14:22 / 11.03.03

I like to think the sea also does its thing because it's a level horizon - a virtual view of infinity. Which is calming, actually.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:41 / 11.03.03

yep. I think there's something about having uninterrupted space around that's really soothing, grounding.

Eg in Brighton, a pretty urban/built-up town (not a big city, but pretty busy), all the bustle and building and noise just stops at the sea. Nothing out there but water, sky, birds....

14:46 / 11.03.03

Yeah I see what you mean about infinity and I do look at the sea and think '' that is the way out!''

14:48 / 11.03.03

Yeah, you won't get a taller sky anywhere else.

Icicle>

I don't think you need necessarily attribute all of your seaside happiness to the ions. Maybe it's 20% ion, 80% all the other stuff, or some such mix.

14:54 / 11.03.03

Yeah, I know, I was just getting a bit cynical for a moment, after all looking at pictures of the sea can be quite nice and you can't ingest any ions off of them! But I was also thinking about how you sometimes attribute big reasons to moods, when all it comes down to some chemical reactions. For instance when I was giving up smoking a few months ago, I kept having all these pessimistic thoughts, which was quite unusual for me, the world genuinely seemed a more terrible place, but all it really came down to was nicotine deprivation. I find it scary when that happnens like you see the foundations that the world is built upon and for a moment it doesn't appear real.

Tryphena Absent

15:03 / 11.03.03

Odd that this thread is around at the moment - I was at the seaside on Saturday afternoon and was considering that it made me a lot happier to be there at first but after about half an hour I got very bored and really needed to get away from it. I wonder if that's related in some way?

16:20 / 11.03.03

Is this principle behind the ubiquity of the "water feature" too? I can sort of see the point of those in a garden but my mother has one in the middle of the living room. Another friend used to have one next to her futon so any visit by me was one long trip to the loo and back. I thought the object was to hear the soothing sound of running water in the background all the time but perhaps they pump out jolly ions? My mother does seem suspiciously cheerful all the time but I thought that was down to crack smoking.

16:35 / 11.03.03

Yes, with the single exception of Portsmouth, where the City Council extract all the negative ions from the air, stuff them into carrier bags and burn them in a furnace before anyone can absorb them. The burning process chokes the city with thick clouds of nasty positive ions, which might explain why everyone in Portsmouth looks so bloody miserable and aggressive all the time. It all started back in the 80s when the wealthy denizens of Southsea complained about people walking along the front getting something for free.

Nooononono. That's the story, but what actually happens is that the wealthy denizens of Southsea suck up all the negative ions before they can get anywhere near Portsmouth and Fratton, thus depriving the general populace of their negative ion quota and reifying the ingrained socio-economic structure of the island. They then start up shops like Passion Fish at the northern reach of the negative ion zone (Albert Road) specifically as a two-finger salute to all the deprived people. (My apologies if anyone here is involved with that place, but I really hate it).

08:25 / 12.03.03

I was at the seaside...it made me a lot happier to be there at first but after about half an hour I got very bored and really needed to get away from it. I wonder if that's related in some way?

apparently about 5% of the population get a europhic effect from positive ions, maybe this means they react negatively to negative ions, though I'm not sure about this. can you think of any reason why you'd want to get away?
do you feel happier when in smoky, indoor centrally heated environments?,

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:36 / 12.03.03

I went to the sea at the weekend, and, ions or no ions, I felt much happier. (May have just been the whole "being away" thing). But I was also slightly anxious- I start worrying the minute I'm out of view of Canary Wharf. I've only been living in London 12 years or so, but I think I've gone native.

Personally, I like the sounds it makes, and the sheer fucking vastness of the thing. That and the fact that it plays home to many pirates.

14:18 / 12.03.03

Corpses, old needles and used condoms, do not make for the most pleasant of beach scenes.

Speaking as someone who spent much of their childhood fooling around by the seaside, I wish I'd gotten some of that scary action!

Would have livened things up no end.

As it is, the only truly cool things I ever found washed up were a toy dalek and the box of one of those straight-to-video 'erotic thrillers'.

15:33 / 12.03.03

btw, apart from the sometimes dirty beach, i do love brighton, and i dont think corpses are really that common. i just think my friend was unlucky.

I think what BIP was saying is true, it is just a total haven away from the bustle of the town. just lying down near the water in the sunshine where you cant hear the cars and you could be anywhere.

Also, the sea at night is a beautiful sight, especially when lit up by burning piers.......