I can’t help but notice all the negativity lately.
And it seems to be everywhere.
It’s in our politics.
It’s in our economy.
It’s in our work place.
It’s in our community.
I do realize the irony here. I get it. A media guy talking about negativity.
The media is one of the worst offenders. We report on bad news.
Look at the story about the Twitter account started by some Worthington residents. That story, which was reported in the Daily Globe, is spanning the nation.
It was picked up in media outlets from New England to San Francisco.
Why? That’s simple. People love negative news.
That same day, we ran a story about a 96-year-old lady who is retiring after all these years.
Earlier in the week, the Globe had a story about a gentleman who won a convertible at a casino.
Neither of those feel-good stories were picked up by other media outlets.
People don’t seem to care about the good news as much as the bad news.
We hear all the time that we only cover the bad things that happen. Unfortunately, that’s what the readers want. The top read stories on a daily basis are the crime reports, not the feel-good stories.
Another example I’m going to use is this week’s discussion on a new outdoor swimming pool.
There is a group forming to push for a new, larger pool in town.
I think that’s great. If people have the money lying around to donate to a new swimming pool, I’m all for it. It’s things like this that make living in this country so great. We have the freedoms to push for things like this.
Will it happen? Who knows. But, I applaud them for trying.
The Globe ran a story in the paper a few days ago about this new group and their meeting on Thursday.
I wasn’t at the meeting, so I don’t know what the tone of that meeting was.
But, the comments online have been very negative toward the city and the current pool.
My philosophy has always been pretty simple. If you don’t like something, work to change it.
If you’re unhappy with your job, get a new one.
If you don’t like your car, buy a new one.
If you don’t like your elected officials, campaign for the opponent.
If you don’t like something about the way the outdoor pool is run, get involved with changing it.
The people who are all up in arms about the new pool, where were they when it was being built a few years ago? Why didn’t they get on the planning committee or donate financially to the new pool?
I keep coming back to the serenity prayer:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
When it comes to the negativity, I wish people would use this as a guide.
If it’s something you can’t change, there is no point in being negative about it.
If you can, then do it.
Don’t sit and complain about it, do something to change the culture, whether it be personally or professionally.
Think about how much better our world, country, town and life could be.
Right on, Aaron! Glad we have people like you in the media working to change culture. We need more of that. In part, I think that people tend not to respond to something if they agree with it, but will only write if they disagree. Thus, we get more negative feedback than positive feedback. This is multiplied by the fact that its so easy for people to hide behind the veil of anonymity on the Internet. The responses to the pool article are a great example–the conversation is essentially dominated by 2-3 dominant, negative voices. The result is a chilling effect on those who want to constructively start or contribute to conversations. Your work facilitating local contributions to the conversation is vitally important to this. Thanks for what you do.
Thanks for the comment, Jay! I think the old saying goes, “The squeaky wheel gets the oil.” That’s a good example of how things are. People want to point out the negative, but not applaud the positive. Perhaps it’s something like those commercials on TV, where people see acts of kindness and pass it along. Maybe we need more examples like that.