The Silver Lining of Social Media’s Negativity Obsession

Shockingly evil things + news often seem to defeat good things + good news in the war for human attention, especially on social media, TV, etc.

There’s one silver lining to all this, though:

The good is going to have to become that much better to stand out and win. Good people are going to have to work harder, and that’s probably a good thing.

To drown out the shockingly evil stuff, the people doing the good stuff are going to have to create and do things that are themselves *shockingly* good and moral and beautiful.

Our morality (if it survives) is going to pack on some serious muscle. And it’s going to emerge on the other end of this dark media/negativity monsoon as a stronger force in the world – if all of us do our part.

And what’s more, extraordinary courage, kindness, decency, honesty, and fairness are going to be rewarded with our attention like never before. There’s no clickbait like the clickbait of shocking, transcendent human goodness.

(P.S. I’m a big fan of small goodnesses, too. But I think we’re going to have to up our game in a few ways).

Originally published at JamesWalpole.com.