That's a negative, Ghost Rider
In case you haven't noticed, there is a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world today. It has gotten to the point that you almost think it might be better to crawl into a hole and just keep to yourself. Of course, we know that isn't the smart move, we need human interaction, but when 95% of that interaction leans towards the negative, are we really doing ourselves any favors?
You can't really see it in this photo, but just imagine off in the distance there is a river. If you look really closely, you can see an bridge in the distance that carries vehicles over the Tittabawassee River. Recently, as part of another reclamation project they decided to build a pedestrian bridge parallel to the auto bridge. This pedestrian bridge will carry walkers across the river and over to a nature area that used to be an industrial building supply companies stock yard.
As a fun idea, the city thought they would take to social media and have a contest where residents could come up with a fun or meaningful name for the bridge. I remember scrolling through that FB app when the post came across my feed about the contest. Like a moron, I decided to check out the comments to see if anyone had any creative names.
Clearly, that was a mistake.
I was suddenly taken aback by the number of negative comments about the bridge. Trust me, I am not naive, I know there is a lot of negativity in the world, but it was in that moment it struck me just how pervasive and prominent it is these days.
Personally, I prefer my bitters in an Old Fashioned, but dang if there aren't a lot of angry and bitter people out in the world today. This example of a mundane foot bridge (not the one pictured above), is just a small example of what you can see on pretty much any social media post these days.
It's no wonder that @ericvancewalton created the #goodvibesonly tag here on HIVE to try and highlight some of the positive out there in the midst of all the negative. Needless to say, since this post is mainly about negativity, I won't be using that tag.
It makes me wonder though how we got to this point. Have people just been beaten down so much over the years that negativity is their only recourse? While I think that might be true for some folks, I am not buying that for the majority. Perhaps I am delusional, and yes, the world is a pretty crumby place at times, but there is good here too. Enough that it should be able to counteract some of the negativity.
I'm no expert (but my wife is), and I honestly feel like a lot of this has to do with people not learning to cope with negative emotions or feelings.
I've mentioned this before, but in the book "Let Them", the assertion is made that most adults have the emotional intellect of an eight year old. It's never convenient to deal with negative emotions. How many times have you seen a parent or adult out in public deal with a child by having them stifle their big negative emotions?
Now trust me, I don't think a full blown tantrum in the middle of a store is the answer either, but a big part of what my wife tries to teacher her students is how to recognize those big emotions and cope with them in a way that validates them, but also puts them in perspective.
Unfortunately, many of us (myself included) didn't have the blessing of having someone like @mrsbozz around to teach them that. I don't fault my parents either, that's just how things were. The fact that we have generations of angry people raging in the comments section of social media is proof to me that it is a systemic issue and not something that pointing the finger at someone will fix.
The problem is, now we have all these people bottling up these negative emotions and because they don't know how to cope, their best course of action is letting it all out in the comments section of the Internet. It's the stupidest stuff too sometimes. I can appreciate being upset at a social injustice, or some decisions politicians are making that is going to be detrimental to the public, but a pedestrian bridge? Come on!
No doubt they feel it is some sort of misappropriation of funds, and while that might be a valid argument, not everything is a conspiracy. That's probably a topic for a different post!
I don't have a fix for it, and I am sure this won't be the last time I post about it.
I can appreciate how hard it is to be positive when we are surrounded by so much negativity
Even here on HIVE we are not immune to it. It only takes hanging out in your favorite HIVE focused Discord channel for a few days before you start to see the negativity creep in. Does that mean things like the DHF aren't flawed? No, but there is a lot of positivity on the chain too, and perhaps focusing on that would do us all some good.
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
I hear you on the negativity, it's everywhere. The world is a tough place, it always has been, but it seems some people haven't learned to accept it. Some things you can change, but constant negativity leads to depression and other mental health issues. Then again, those may have already been present but brought out of latency with the current world environment... Hard to say!
I think people need to remember to focus on what's truly important. Is a pedestrian bridge the worst thing that ever happened? Maybe to a few crazies, but overall it's a positive project. I think that maybe social media has unmuzzled many people's natural filters and say things they would never say in front of others publicly.
I've lived in places that were truly tough, where people lived in housed with dirt floors. We have life better than most people around the world, so be grateful for what you do have and look for some positives. I agree, we need more positivity in the world, especially online.
Great post!
Those are some good points. We definitely have it better than a lot of people. I think part of it comes down to people just wanting to be heard or recognized, but they don't know how to express that. I don't know, it just feels like it is getting worse and worse over stupider and stupider things...
I try to think of it as biased, in the sense that social media primarily exposes us to the negative and toxic comments and aspects of humanity. I'm in a similar state of mind a lot, and am struck by how easy it is to get me there - a few online mean comments are enough to convince me the world is fundamentally evil. It's a challenge to keep hoping and believing that on the contrary, we are primarily good, most of us, at least. What helps me is knowing that it really does depend on each of us. If I let myself be beaten by this depressing view of society, then it will influence my own actions in the world.
As Eric points out, we're also in a sense addicted to these bad vibes (since we are, after all, engineered to see them as more salient from a survival perspective). Somehow, we've arrived at a place where socially, we seem to have less value if we don't constantly have something to bitch about... Yet it's so much more peaceful living in "good vibes" and I do believe a majority of us agree on this.
I like to think, we may seem few, but we are many :)
Maybe I need to make a concentrated effort to see more of the positive in the world. Worst case someone complains about my new attitude! :)
It's only civil to keep such people supplied with things to complain about!
Your reply is upvoted by @topcomment; a manual curation service that rewards meaningful and engaging comments.
More Info - Support us! - Reports - Discord Channel
I think we're at a very perilous crossroads as a society. The level of negativity, mostly from social and mainstream media, we experience on a daily basis is very unhealthy and unnatural. Humans tend to gravitate towards the negative because giving the negative threats our attention in the distant past insured our survival. The media exploits this negativity-bias at every opportunity. I call my 81 year old mom each morning and I can actually tell if she's watched the local news by her mood and level of optimism.
I think it's become so perilous because we've now collectively become addicted to the negativity. This lens makes us see the world as a lot worse than it is. I built my career posting positive/motivational content in 2010 or so on social media and it was fairly popular up until five our six years ago. This genre gets little-to-no attention now. It only takes perusing the #goodvibesonly tag to see the lack of interest.
It feels as though we're caught in a doom-loop and I really hope we can pull ourselves out of it before it's too late.
That is a good point. It's certainly easier to focus on the negative stuff. Myself included. I know that over the years I have probably become more skeptical in general and jaded about a lot of things. It just seems that humans continue to disappoint us!
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3m27h5wimbk24
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:u37t33dyaufvrqujwmvm54ln/post/3m27h5wimbk24
The rewards earned on this comment will go to the author of the blog post.
You know I have a plugin that completely blocks all comments on FB from people I don't know. I also have all comments hidden on YouTube. People just really allow their hate to flow in comments. Even when it's not anonymous, online people still have no filter.
Anyway, excellent point! I can agree that's probably a part of it. Having so many emotions bottled up and not knowing how to express them can't be a good thing. I suppose the only way out of that is just to teach kids better and hope the next generation handles things differently.
Those sounds like some really great plugins! I don't spend enough time on social media anymore that it isn't a huge deal, but every now and then I dive down the rabbit hole! I probably still spend more time on it than I should or than I say I do!
Negativity in social media these days are indeed getting much.
Is it that we've run out of reasonable things to hate about?
Or are the haters far more than the reasonable things to hate on.
I think people are maybe just looking for low hanging fruit. They know complaining about global things is useless so they pick stuff they think they can manipulate.
I guess the internet gave people a way to speak in a way they wouldn't dare to do face to face , and the negativity is the result.
!UNI
Yes, that is very true!
Funny how these bridges looks like they are located in Serbia and by cover photo I was like, "Heyyy, you were here at our place, need to ask you how it was..." 🙉😅
Great blog, anyway.
Thank you! Nope, these were all around where I live in Michigan except maybe the last one. I can't quite remember where that was, but it may have been a couple hours to the north.