Negativity Perpetuated and Propagated
Today I am grateful for a nice bike ride with Darcy in the cool morning air. I am also grateful for warm cereal and bananas.
Yesterday I encouraged readers to watch Steve Foran's latest video. Here is the link again to the brief video with a message worth hearing and doing something about. He talks about "write wrage" and the negative comments that often get posted online on any number of venues. I have seen some of those negative streams of comments and been appalled and disheartened. People will go back and forth, getting nastier and nastier. Or others will jump in and take sides and add to the bashing. It often becomes about something pretty different than the original article or post intended.
It is often nameless, faceless strangers doing this to one another. Why? Do they feel better? Do they think they must keep retorting to get the last word in and "win"? Do they think if they say it one more time, a little more forcefully, that others will agree? I don't know what their motivations may be, but it sure seems that negative leads to more negative. In the online comment arena, and any other arena.
That is sure how it used to play out in the arena of my mind. A little self-pity and self-hatred led to negative thinking which led to deeper self-pity and self-hatred. One of the greatest outcomes of gratitude practice for me is that it helps me start more positive and stay more positive in my thinking and perceptions.
In his video, Steve Foran suggests that every day for a week, we post positive comments online to offset the negative ones. Can our little comments make a difference? Sure. Not a huge difference overnight, but each positive comment is a good start. Be part of propagating some positivity instead of witnessing the perpetuation of all the negativity.
It turns out that there is something in human brains that tend to pull us to the downside-it is called "negativity bias." I will write more about that next week. For today, I am looking for positves in a grateful frame of mind and sharing what I can with others.
Yesterday I encouraged readers to watch Steve Foran's latest video. Here is the link again to the brief video with a message worth hearing and doing something about. He talks about "write wrage" and the negative comments that often get posted online on any number of venues. I have seen some of those negative streams of comments and been appalled and disheartened. People will go back and forth, getting nastier and nastier. Or others will jump in and take sides and add to the bashing. It often becomes about something pretty different than the original article or post intended.
It is often nameless, faceless strangers doing this to one another. Why? Do they feel better? Do they think they must keep retorting to get the last word in and "win"? Do they think if they say it one more time, a little more forcefully, that others will agree? I don't know what their motivations may be, but it sure seems that negative leads to more negative. In the online comment arena, and any other arena.
That is sure how it used to play out in the arena of my mind. A little self-pity and self-hatred led to negative thinking which led to deeper self-pity and self-hatred. One of the greatest outcomes of gratitude practice for me is that it helps me start more positive and stay more positive in my thinking and perceptions.
In his video, Steve Foran suggests that every day for a week, we post positive comments online to offset the negative ones. Can our little comments make a difference? Sure. Not a huge difference overnight, but each positive comment is a good start. Be part of propagating some positivity instead of witnessing the perpetuation of all the negativity.
It turns out that there is something in human brains that tend to pull us to the downside-it is called "negativity bias." I will write more about that next week. For today, I am looking for positves in a grateful frame of mind and sharing what I can with others.
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