Perceptions on Happiness

I am interested in positive psychology, so I occasionally listen talks on happiness, read books on positive psychology. According to experts, we are social animals and if your goal in life is to be happy, you should make a circle of happy friends to yourself. My personal opinion and experiences doesn't really support this claim. I am not claiming that all work is rubbish and the experts are wrong , actually it is exactly the opposite. I observe the people around me and oddly most people enjoy a fruitless conversation, they think a regular conversation is way for them to relieve the stress they exposed during the work, or they go with humor. I understand that this is a defense mechanism but yeah it doesn't work for me. I know that a lot of people can watch comedians for hours but not me. Frankly, i find it quite boring. I think sitting in front of your TV and listening this guy making fun of things is quite boring to watch for like an hour or so with their "happy" friends. Not the best example but in one of her interviews in NY Times Viviene Westwood was telling she finds the movie theatres boring. Unless it is not a very good movie that you go there to see for, i am with her.

Now, I do agree with the experts on the humans are being very social. But the fact is we are also intellectual, i personally would like to engage in a conversation where i can express my feelings, share my experiences and i would expect from the other party to do the same, so in that way i get my brain to form new neural ways in which i can use them in a future experience. I would like my circle of friends to be critical on me in a way that will improve my ideas and help me gain insight. No i dont need a circle of happy friends, I need a circle of intellectual friends. Engaging in fruitful conversation makes me happy not hedonistic present oriented acts.

(The picture in this post is from http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/)