Louise, thank you for sharing this. In Paolo Sorrentino's movie "Youth" one man said that there are only two choices in this world, fear or desire. And that hit me. Ocasionally I try to remind myself that I choose the latter. Good luck in your writing journey.
I had a similar conversation with my friends this weekend. Most of them consume the news and their general feeling is that the world is a horrible place. I don't see it like that, I look around in my life and don't see anything of those bad things. I might be priviliged, but so are my friends. We have so many things to be grateful for. Stop consuming the news was one of the best things I ever did.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Marie! I'm so glad you're having a similar experience and that you have so many things to be grateful for. I love what you said about privilege. We are privileged... and yet, many privileged people are unhappy because they focus on the negative.
Louise the other day I was talking to my wife about the effect TikTok might've been having on her perception of the world. Seems we keep talking about how gringos are screwing everything up here in Mexico. I wondered why that was the case until my wife sent me a few videos she'd been watching on TikTok to back up her claims. Makes sense, of course. We aren't always the kindest to Mexico, but surely there are other examples of wonderful relationships gringos have with latinos in the USA that never get spoken about because, well, they aren't newsworthy? It's just the bad stuff. Idk if TikTok is to blame for this, or if it's just the algorithm that my wife has naturally kind of fallen into there. At any rate, I know for a fact her consumption of videos on that platform has a massive effect on her.
That's fascinating about how TikTok is impacting the discussions in your marriage! So true about how it's primarily bad things that are deemed to be newsworthy. That's part of what motivated me to start reading positive news.
"If it bleeds, it leads." Or, as Bill Gates put it: “Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement is not.”
From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that we have a negativity bias (after all, constantly watching out for danger is what kept early humans alive). It's just that many of us now live in places that are relatively safe and so our negativity bias leads us to focus on the bad even when we could just chill out and enjoy life. :)
After many years of writing "news" I gave it up in pursuit of writing poetry and personal essays, daily affirmations, feel good stuff. I also limit my consumption. It is so much better for my body, mind and soul.
Louise, thank you for sharing this. In Paolo Sorrentino's movie "Youth" one man said that there are only two choices in this world, fear or desire. And that hit me. Ocasionally I try to remind myself that I choose the latter. Good luck in your writing journey.
Thank you so much, Tomas! I haven't seen that movie yet, I'll go ahead and search for it!
Louise, it is a great one, highly recommend.
I had a similar conversation with my friends this weekend. Most of them consume the news and their general feeling is that the world is a horrible place. I don't see it like that, I look around in my life and don't see anything of those bad things. I might be priviliged, but so are my friends. We have so many things to be grateful for. Stop consuming the news was one of the best things I ever did.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Marie! I'm so glad you're having a similar experience and that you have so many things to be grateful for. I love what you said about privilege. We are privileged... and yet, many privileged people are unhappy because they focus on the negative.
Louise the other day I was talking to my wife about the effect TikTok might've been having on her perception of the world. Seems we keep talking about how gringos are screwing everything up here in Mexico. I wondered why that was the case until my wife sent me a few videos she'd been watching on TikTok to back up her claims. Makes sense, of course. We aren't always the kindest to Mexico, but surely there are other examples of wonderful relationships gringos have with latinos in the USA that never get spoken about because, well, they aren't newsworthy? It's just the bad stuff. Idk if TikTok is to blame for this, or if it's just the algorithm that my wife has naturally kind of fallen into there. At any rate, I know for a fact her consumption of videos on that platform has a massive effect on her.
That's fascinating about how TikTok is impacting the discussions in your marriage! So true about how it's primarily bad things that are deemed to be newsworthy. That's part of what motivated me to start reading positive news.
"If it bleeds, it leads." Or, as Bill Gates put it: “Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you because bad news is a headline, and gradual improvement is not.”
From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that we have a negativity bias (after all, constantly watching out for danger is what kept early humans alive). It's just that many of us now live in places that are relatively safe and so our negativity bias leads us to focus on the bad even when we could just chill out and enjoy life. :)
Conscious media consumption is so important. This is a great read!
Thanks so much for your comment, Pamela! I'm glad you liked this. :)
After many years of writing "news" I gave it up in pursuit of writing poetry and personal essays, daily affirmations, feel good stuff. I also limit my consumption. It is so much better for my body, mind and soul.