7mo ago

Don't you all get tired of the constant negativity?

Despite not subscribing to political communities and having a large number of content filters based on keywords, my feed here is still for a large part all negative articles and ragebait. Elon Musk this and Israel that. Microsoft ruining windows, AI ruining internet, right wingers and capitalism ruining the world, police being racist and shooting innocent people, companies demanding workers into offices, privacy being under constant attack from all sides.. And all this despite the effort I go thru to block that from my view. I can only imagine what the unfiltered feed is like.

I get that this is all important stuff but holy shit it's depressing when that's all I read here every day. Sure, some of it is legitimately news worthy but lets be real here; much of it isn't. It's just to get you riled up and engaging with the post. It's the exact same thing all major social media recommendation algorithms are doing; feeding you content that causes outrage to keep you on the platform for as long as possible. Do we really need to know about every stupid thing Elon says or every police shooting where the victim is black?

It's no wonder so many people, especially younger ones feel absolutely miserable from day to day. It can't be healthy to live like this. I feel like this kind of media diet is pretty much equivalent to eating fast food every single day.

245 comments

That’s why I post pictures of opossums, bats, and raccoons…
- Thank you for your service!
- Thank you for your posts. I love them in my feed.
- Ty for doing that
- Your work is appreciated
- And suddenly I found several more communities to sub to.
  Thank you sir…
- And weed...
- Hey! We talked on your scarf post the other day, but I didn't notice that you're the one posting all those opossums and raccoons. Thank you!
- Tenth person to say it… but thank you :)
- This is the way. I personally don't really resonate with OPs problem but the solution is definitely to become the poster you want to see on Lemmy. Most of us are here for scrolling and maybe dropping a comment here or there, theres tonnnnns of space for more link posting.

I am tired of living in a world with all of these problems. Whether or not I have the luxury to ignore them is besides the point.
- Nobody is making the world a better place by paying daily attention to every possible thing that's wrong with it.
  
  This sounds like the "don't make everything political" rhetoric which is naively hilarious. If you're encouraging moderation for the sake of mental well-being, sure - but that is just that, like many other things.
  Information is a well; people will come and go. How much any one person consumes, like food and drink, is their choice regardless of consequence. You can argue diet, drugs, alcohol, entertainment, masturbation all the same.
  Personally, I'd rather take on the mental burden of being informed over being as clueless as some. Ignorance leads to many problems, higher costs when you're not much of a problem solver etc.
  
  A counterpoint here, if people don’t talk about a problem, or in this case share, then the problem may go unresolved or intensify.
  Multiply that by how many problems affect masses of people.
  
  Seriously. I wonder how many of those doomers actually volunteer in their community, or are active in their local politics. If the answer was any more than "basically none," I don't think we would have most of these issues.
  
  The idea is that you spread the knowledge to others and occasionally do something about some of them, even if it's only a small contribution.
  
  👌💯👏
- You doing anything to change those problems ?
  
  Admittedly not much anymore. It's hard organizing people in the face of systemic opposition under the best of circumstances, but I'm also incredibly unhealthy. Socially awkward and anxious is only the tip of the iceberg of the personal problems I have that make it hard for me to engage in real life activism anymore. I've tried, but it's not really something I can do at the moment. I can barely do anything at the moment for that matter.
  That said, there is some small value in trying to convince others to think about these problems and develop class consciousness. I'm not claiming it's much and it's stressful/depressing knowing I'm not doing more, but at least I'm not trying to get people to stick their heads in the sand. I'm not actively making things worse.
  
  It's a valid question, yet you get downvoted...

Even if you ditched the internet for a while, the real world is fucked and getting more so every day and the only way you still wouldn't notice is if you live in a little bubble completely isolated from the rest of existence.
- I live in a country with multiple problems right now, but I've grown to be aware that the more I actively look at negative commentary on the current situation (most are online given anonymity), the more I get into panic mode, which clouds my longterm thinking of trying to get into a better situation (whether it's self-soothing, changing state policies by any measure, relocation, etc)
- I disagree. On the internet it seems like the world is burning (and it kind of is) but outside in the real world sun is shining, birds are singing and people are being polite to eachother. Those two places are in no way equivalent.
  
  The world is actually burning though, and there are fewer birds, and people are tired and stressed all the time, and money is tight, and this is all in the real world, no internet required to experience any of that. The internet may expose you to others struggles that don't affect your real world, but it still affects theirs. The ability to commiserate is what helps a lot of people cope with their real world, and might even invite insight on how to end some of those struggles.
  
  In the real world your bubble is super small and it tends to be pleasant that is because you intake a lot less information and data about what is going on.
  The internet and global community has TONS of information that someone focused on their life won't exactly notice. There is ways even on the internet to surround yourself with just positivity and fun. But the fact of the matter making people feel negative gets more clicks and drives more money.
  Take a break enjoy your life. Check in on the internet occasionally.
  
  The horrible things we see on the news, whether through traditional or Internet consumption, are being experienced by real people. The kids starving in Gaza aren't ai generated.
  
  Do you live in the country far from a city. In the UK where I live there's been a rise in homelessness, roads are packed full of cars, the water treatment companies are poisoning our rivers and beaches, I saw the environmental agency destroying a habitat that was home to several birds, old victory buildings getting knocked down in anticipation of student accommodation, high street in my city has betting shops and casinos, local shops can't compete with the corporations. Its grim
- which I currently am. :(
- Here’s your moment of zen …..
  Sometime during the last school year, my state enacted a new financial aid program for instate college tuition. On April 29, we got a big surprise refund of most of the tuition we paid for the last school year for my son! College costs are finally getting attention!
- I like Bubbles.
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=dN3wEdK_vxw
- the real world is fucked and getting more so every day
  Okay I know we have climate change and that is seriously bad.
  But the world today is vastly, vastly better than the world 50 years ago. I agree that the world is still fucked but it was more fucked yesterday. Let's not let the doom newsfeed turn us blind to the fact that the world has in fact gotten better over the last many decades.

What do you expect? You're on lemmy. Half the userbase is doomers, dude.
- let's look at this in a positive way: "half of them are not!"
  
  So you're a "glass half empty" kind of person, which now means you're a positive thinker.
- There's something about social networks and doom-porn. I have no idea which causes the other, but those tend to walk together.
  At least lemmy isn't heavy editorialized into increased doomerism.
  
  I think the cgp grey video about thought germs gives a high level overview

IMO the issue isn't that there's too much negative content, but that there isn't enough of everything else. I'd encourage people to post, engage with and signal boost other kinds of content they're interested in. May just be that politics and social issues are some of the most popular interests in the community.
- Yes! I agree, and I just stated a similar point of view. I think we need more positive distractions during this US election cycle.

Thank you for putting how I feel browsing Lemmy into words. I really hope that more wholesome communities can gain more traction soon.
- One thing I've tried to take to heart on lemmy: On reddit I nearly never posted articles. But here, I try to post any article I find interesting. I think with such a small space we've gotta be the change we see. Every time you read something worthwhile, try to remember to find somewhere to post it here.

You are so on point. I come here mainly for chuckles, some light hearted discussion and memes but what do is see most? Rage, rage and more rage.
- To be fair, I wasn't seeing mostly rage until this US election cycle spun up.

Politics are dumb but very, very important. I'm exhausted, but I can't let that stop me.
- Politics are dumb but very, very important
  I know that saying well.
  And I agree. You are not learning to understand politics because you think you're going to run for office and change the world, you learn so you understand what's actually going on and so you can help educate others.
  Seriously, everyone out there who rather just block out anything to do with politics and society and are overwhelmed by the idea of finding the path to least harm, you are only going to make your insecurity and anxiety around politics worse by ignoring it or condemning it when you see it. Forming strong values around your axioms is politics, and when you find a confident stance like "Do good things, don't do bad things" and learn what consequences are of different attitudes and actions, you become a LOT more complete and confident and less likely to be absolutely railroaded by the very real forces out there who will exploit your apathy. It doesn't mean you have to preach or lecture anyone, just know how things work.
  Sitting it out, ignoring it, hiding from it... that feels like you're escaping, but you are just playing into the plans of those who need you to be apathetic. You don't get out of taking a side here, so start learning.
- What is consuming everything actually doing for you? Like, how is it benefiting? What positive actions does it inspire that lead you to creating a better world?
  
  If you aren't informed, your choices are more likely to cause harm
  
  Personal insecurity comes from lack of understanding of systems that impact you.
  Everyone has different needs and wants out of their society, but we all have the same axioms. Learning how to connect your axioms to your political identity is a very strong way to feel more connected to your community and the people you care about. Learning how the world works can help guide choices and support others who may also be struggling. Understanding how politics and sociology work gives you a window into how people are motivated and you will make better decisions.
  And more than anything, the MOST important part of learning how the world functions and how science, politics, religion, emotion and relationships are all tied to each other, is that it defends you against bullshit and lies.
  You and I are very vulnerable to the way others can trigger emotional responses and then use those feelings to explain an agenda. People do this all day long, every day, on every side of the political spectrum, and it's VERY easy to get pulled into these clubs and communities, most of which are either scams or grifts trying to sell you something or trying to get you to become a walking advertisement for what they're selling.
- The problem with politics on lemmy is that it isn't a discussion at all, but a one-sided circle jerk. Almost every post is some flavor of Right Wing Bad, and any attempt at nuance or calling out hypocrisy results in a sea of downvotes and what appears to be shadow bans. There are no dissenting opinions allowed. If you spend your time consuming heavily moderated and filters content, it's going to produce anxiety. But more importantly, it isn't even reality.

i get this way sometimes. the answer is easy; dont read it. its just that simple. if its only the headline in a list giving you angst, it feels like you might have other issues.
you said it yourself.. its a diet you feed yourself. its all in your own hands. dont read it.
- I agree with this 100%
  I used to love wallowing in bad news, but it just got to the point it was having more of a negative impact than it's worth. I still pay attention to what's going on, it just doesn't need to be via an IV bag all day so I filter most of it out now.
  
  I like your last sentence alot lol very true

We talk about positive things.
Like Linux.

I don't have that problem, especially on lemmy. My feed here is mostly about taking action, not doomerism.

There's a genocide going on with what appears to be more or less the full support of the countries that make up the defence union my country is a part of.
There's war in Europe.
I find those topics worthy of discussion, and any social media where this is not actively discussed seems to me to be a smokescreen more than anything.
Of course tragic realities like the genocide we are complacent in, climate change, war in Europe, Russian propaganda and the rise of the far right is going to be actively discussed. It concerns more or less everyone who uses this platform, and they are the most important issues of our time. It's not about negativity, it's about coming to terms with reality and seeking to understand it.
That said, the communities I follow are largely apolitical stuff that interests me. Woodworking, knitting, gardening, owls, art, and the Fediverse. With the exception of !europe@feddit.de and !energy@slrpnk.net, I let the political stuff come through the cracks rather than actively following it.
I also have a Piefed account on which I follow news communities but actively filter out Trump and Musk. I can see how Amercians still feel the need to talk about these men, but at the end of the day they're just fascist attention removed.

In short: Yes. It's dragging me down, too.
I'd like to focus on positivity. I mean negativity comes with strong emotions and I don't want to get rid of it. But I'd like to see more positive things, too. People sharing side projects and nice things they've done and created. There needs to be a better balance. Because this doesn't depict life or the entire perspective.

I don't mind when bad news is posted. It's important to know these things. What bothers me is how the top comment is always some low-effort defeatest bullshit like "and there will never be consequences."
- I'm finding that some really bizarre ideas around persecution are embraced on lemmy.
  In some other thread someone is trying to convince me that wealthy people hate e-bikes because they don't want poor people to be free.
  
  There is some evidence for the bizarre ideas: Social dominance theory - Wikipedia
  Many Differences between Liberals and Conservatives May Boil Down to One Belief - Scientific American
  People who score high in hierarchical world belief see the world as full of differences that matter because they usually reflect something real, inherent and significant. Such individuals often separate things of greater value from things of lesser value.
- YES good point. This is truly where I feel the most disgust.
  Honestly if you wanted to demoralize a nation and had either some GPT bots or rooms full of foreign operatives, this kind of defeatist top comment would be a pretty effective way of doing it.
  You can just influence the culture of their people. Make them think through social proof that the right way to act is to be defeatist and pessimistic and negative.

One of Lemmy's most toxic communities are the Linux people. I'm actually a huge fan of Linux, but the simple fact I use Windows as well constantly earns me personal attacks and extremely negative responses.
My solution (to this and many other issues you describe) is honestly to not read the replies any longer... I just say my bit, and I leave.
I've also taken to watching comedy shows that touch upon numerous topics of all the crazy shit going on. The Daily show has been a great outlet for me, and I'm not even a Democrat (I'm independent). It's just nice to see a popular form of media clearly states "yes, this is crazy. You're not crazy, THIS is just f*king crazy."
Edit: For example, Trump recently claimed he never said "lock her up" the other day to Hillary. I saw this on Lemmy first. John Stewart's reaction a day or two later was perfect, and pointed out the gaslighting taking place.
I just feel like you have to find ways to laugh at all this crazy stuff... So comedy shows help. Just keep your guard up whenever consuming politically charged media, of course.
- Hey you might not read this since it's a reply, but John Oliver does a pretty good job also! Last Week Tonight on HBO but they also post all their main stories on youtube.
- I just don't see this toxic linux user thing at all.
  Every second post is a meme about Linux users telling people they're idiots for using Windows, but I've never seen Linux users abusing Windows users.
  I'm sure that it happens to some extent, but it seems entirely possible to be active on lemmy without encountering a toxic Linux user.

The world is depressing, and if we just stick our heads in the sand and ignore it all because that feels better nothing's going to fucking change.
Sure, focus on positivity so you don't collapse into a depressive blob, but the idea that we should ignore the state of the world because it's unpleasant is terrible.
- There's probably a healthy middle ground somewhere between the two extreme ends. "Sticking your head in the sand" is harder than you'd think. I go out of my way to try and avoid seeing these articles but I bet you couldn't name a single current event I haven't heard of.
  
  I think it's fair to say that the world was on a steady course of getting better for decades since WWII, but then had quite a strong dip after 2016. I think things have been picking up again lately, but the reason we see so much negativity is kust because there is more of it.
  Don't forget though, the "best" news is negative news that is what people always talk about. Good things are simply expected and so not really talked about.
  It'll all be fine, try to indeed focus on the more positive elements for now

I've unsubscribed from worldnews and technology yesterday. I couldn't bare to read yet another scareporn article pretending to be tech news.
The posts and comments were making me feel worse faster than the interesting information were making me happier.
I'll probably take a short brake and try to sort the news from clickbate and propaganda later, possibly creating a new, properly moderated community.

I think it's because a lot of things are bad (and many are getting worse) yet the only power most people have to do anything about them is to raise awareness of the issues, which means engaging with negative news. Sometimes it can be hard to tell what's real news and what's rage bait; sometimes non-news can seem like news when it's part of an ongoing pattern (such as "Elon's dumb take of the day"). I think there's also some degree of trying to maintain one's sense of reality. To the previous example, despite being a massive fuckwit, Elon is still among the wealthiest people in the world, is incredibly influential, and has maintained some degree of fanboy army; posting/reading/discussing/upvoting an article about what dumb thing he said today is grounding for some folks because it reinforces reality by demonstrating that yes, he is still a fuckwit, even though somehow everything still hasn't come crashing down around him like it karmically should.

Yes I get tired of constant negativity, even though I myself do what I can to not contribute to it.
It’s exhausting

Yes, it's tiring. A lot of people and communities on various platforms are cultivating negativity, focusing on bad things. Even a simple meme about a cat can produce a comment section dominated by replies about how dangerous cats are for wild animals. Okay? Can we have a laugh because the cat did something silly?
I read that our brains are more likely to react to negativity, as that was a defensive mechanism in the past. But today, the internet can mess up our stimulus very, very badly. I don't even open most of these posts you've mentioned, I ignore them like white noise. You can't constantly bathe in that information and be mentally fine.

When you are a pessimist, your entire world view is negative. So, it's not really possible to get tired of that.

Yes. There's a widespread mental health crisis featuring anxiety, depression, narcissism, and more. Make good use of the ability to block, avoid, unsubscribe, etc. You just can't help everybody and you need to help yourself.

I've discovered a way to overcome this: turn off the phone. It's not the content that is bad, it's our addiction to it.
- Spending every day reading about all the different ways it sucks doesn't help either
  
  I know, we're in the same boat.

I think you can also see something fundamentally positive in the critical attitude of many Lemmy users: namely the fact that criticism of undesirable developments in politics, society, the economy and so on is practiced here at all. In my opinion, this is important and should not be taken for granted. If only because it is impossible for so many people in numerous countries around the world to express their opinions freely and criticize their governments or powerful people in their society.
In any case, I think that a certain fundamental skepticism towards the existing power structures in politics, media and business is something of a unifying element that motivates many people to participate in Fediverse, after all, this platform is an alternative to the centrally managed social media providers and their functional logics.
Nevertheless, I think your post is important because it shows that all the negativity that goes hand in hand with a critical examination of the numerous problems in the real world is extremely off-putting for many users. This is of course problematic both for the mass appeal of the Fediverse and to a certain degree probably also for the mental health of the user base.
Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer as to how to deal with this in a meaningful way. However, I try to stay positive and hope for the best.

I didn't design it, but it's the face of reality.
- If you take out the L in your username, is spells over_cox
  
  STRAP ON spelled backwards is NO PARTS

I'm not focusing on the things that don't affect me in some way, and I'm still miserable.
I agree that staying informed is extremely depressing. But what would you have me do, stick my head in the sand and ignore what my government it's doing? Ignore the growing control and power the rich capitalist ruling class have over us all year by year? Or ignore what the growing fascist powers within my nation and other important places like the USA are doing? Or how the global climate for humans is collapsing and what's causing it?
Most of these things directly impact me right now, and will continue to have an even greater impact as time goes on.
I'm not focusing on news stories that have no impact on me. I don't care what Elon Musk had for breakfast, what the latest hot celebrity is doing, or what the Royal family is up to. Even so, only focusing on what affects me and my family is a huge, deeply depressing weight that is ever growing.
I agree, it's awful. But the world, for all the beauty it also contains, is growing ever more awful day by day. I just can't find it in me to bury my head in the sand and hope it'll all turn out fine, so instead I stay informed and stay miserable :-(
We can't fight back if we don't understand our enemy and what they're doing to us. We can't make informed decisions about who to vote for, for example, if we don't follow those political parties and politicians track records, their history of decisions and statements and so on.
People who ignore the day to day stuff and then show up to do 10 minutes of bullet point blurb research to figure out who to vote for are not likely to gain a clear understanding of the parties or candidates true beliefs and intentions. The same is true for companies, we need to stay informed on what they say, what they actually do, so we can be informed on whether we want to work for them, or use their products and services, etc etc.
We must stay informed. They want us uninformed so they can manipulate us with ease. Ignorance is bliss, but at what price?
Anyway, it's a quandary, and a sad one, I agree for sure 🫂
- But what would you have me do, stick my head in the sand and ignore what my government it’s doing? Ignore the growing control and power the rich capitalist ruling class have over us all year by year?
  Believe it or not, yes. You can do this. You can still stay informed. Just don't be online 7 days a week. Fight off that FOMO feeling.
- I think you're vastly underestimating how difficult it is to avoid the news to the point that you have no clue of what's going on in the world. If you knew the lenghts I go to to try and curate my news diet you'd think I'd be completely ignorant but I bet you couldn't name a single important current event I haven't heard of. If you spend any time on the internet and with other people you're going to hear about it and if not, then it wasn't important. Pretty much the only topic I've near perfectly managed to seclude myself from is celebrity gossip.

I try to remind myself that social media, and yes, that includes Lemmy, does not reflect the rest of the aspects of my life - which is overall positive.
Subscribe to the communities you like, and stick to your subscriptions' newsfeed. Much, much better experience.

Of course.
I just turn off my socials for a bit and it's all good.
Yes you can, and should, ignore how crummy the world is sometimes. Outside of the good you can do with your own two hands, there's nothing you can do to change it unless you're a billionaire and a legislator will actually take your phone calls.

That’s the problem. Everyone’s like "THIS IS BAAAD! THAT IS GETTING WORSE!! HURR DURR!“ - but no one is actually reflecting multiple sources. No info, just rage.

I've never had any other social media (aside from reddit and now lemmy) and I don't spend hours a day doomscrolling here. I'm thinking if I did that, I'd go crazy.
Everything in moderation. This definitely includes doomscrolling. Not good for your mental health.

Check out the Uplifting News community :)
- Thank you for this suggestion!

We need to be informed, and unfortunately a lot of things like orange man and Gaza are depressing. But I try to just get the important details and not dwell on things that I can't change.
There are a lot of people writing articles and a whole lot more people commenting, but that doesn't mean I need to read even 1% of it.
- Reporting on negative stuff is one thing. Reporting on mundane news, with 10 reasons why it's literally killing us, is entirely different thing.

Yes, the problem to me is manly the feeling (or fact) that we are running into an existential crisis that can and probably will decimate large amounts of the global population and instead of pulling together, people are running into the arms of demagogues and extremists that tell them we are great it's the others that are bad and we don't have to change anything about our way of life. Plus every other nation claims little islands or other countries areas... we won't get anywhere if this won't change

"Welcome to the desert of the real" --Morpheus, "The Matrix"
But I agree, it would be nice if Lemmy could be a haven of intelligence, logic, and reason. But the cockroaches simply move from one infestation site to another, impossible to eradicate.
The only way you will get what you want is to unplug. Stop browsing the internet, get outside, and enjoy the sunshine.
Many of us long for the internet of the 90s -- even with its slow dialup speeds and loud modem sounds. It was fresh, exciting, fun, and unencumbered by the weight of millions of trolls who either hadn't yet discovered it, or hadn't yet been born. Now, it is littered with such trolls who have what they perceive as their intelligence spoon-fed to them by the very few major news outlets -- and mistakenly think that their confirmation bias found in their search results is somehow proof of their intelligence. Critical thought is all but gone, replaced by a terrible version of the telephone game, where facts get lost, or worse, purposefully outright removed.

It's exhausting. Lemmy isn't so bad. Threads is absolutely terrible. It's like the MIL subs on Reddit, only for every negative topic imaginable. I just stopped opening the app because all it shows me is content on sexual assaults and rapes and people being victimized and having all sorts of troubles.

Contribute positively... By the way, this is not it.
The thing is if you want content, people feeding you it are a small minority doing most of the work.
Help them and maybe they'll post happier stuff.
- This is a great way to contribute. It’s so heartening to me to see so many other people feeling the same way I am about the negativity.
  But I’ll take your suggestion and start posting my own content.

I dont want to read or see negative news, but it feels i have to be aware of them so things dont hit me blindsided. I'm so tired of this world

I was going to say subscribe to more creative or hobbiest communities, but then there's still news about Adobe or something fucking shit up in those spaces too... 😅😢

I mean I remember doing this as far as I can remember even before the World Wide Web. Funnily I got little healthier when I discovered Reddit.
My real life teenage company was definitely this of depressed rebellion sinking in litres of vodka and drugs every other day.
Reddit made me see better people than the shit company of assholes and total cunts from this eastern block post soviet brutalist architecture neighbourhood.
This is how my primary and middle school looked like

Does that look like a fucking happy place?
- Some classes were more… normal than others ours was possibly the worst. They figured out it would be a fun idea to put delinquent misfits and mildly intellectually challenged and like 3 average students together into one class and call it integration or smh.
  It went about as well as any sane person could expect. The troubled ones terrorised the hell out of the challenged ones. It was like fallout vault experiment.
  This class sucked so much that they tried to enroll me into some math competition contest because no one else could do basic stuff or gave a fuck.

Yeah I do, but I also seem to gravitate towards it so I guess that says something about us as a species.

I block tons of subs and I have a lot of words on my ban list as well.
- A ban list? For words? So I can ban 'literally' forever? Don't tempt me with a good day!
  
  I use boost and it has a block/ban list of words in titles of posts. I have maybe 50 or 60 words in there and it really helps.

Yes, very tired of this and I've noticed the fediverse in particular is especially terrible at it. Mastodon or Lemmy, doesn't matter, I see much less optimism and good news compared to twitter or hackernews. I don't remember Reddit because it's been a year since I deleted my account there.
I think I might start scaling back my fediverse usage a little because as much as everyone says I have to build my own feed, it doesn't matter because there's like 15 total users on here that keep postings the same bad news from the same 2 accounts that get related by the remaining 12 users. And if you mute the bad accounts then your feed is the void.
I can't believe we are at a point where twitter which has an incentive to enrage their users and especially now that they encourage people to post engagement bait (by paying users), I see less bad news and negativity there than on here.
I noticed the fediverse tends to be extremely left-biased, with things like on mastodon you get blocked because you didn't put a content warning on a post showing a recipe because someone could be offended by chopped apples or something like that. I think generally the way the left tends to work is by showing the evils of the right (and the right by outright lying of course) to push for change. This can work but the downside is that you just only see this shit all the time and it is very heavy to take in every day.
It honestly feels like the good news never get relayed on here, and when they do, they are rarely popular. France has put the right to abortion in their constitution, but on here everything we hear about is how one clinic refused an abortion some time 2 years ago for some reason and they are getting sued for it.
One other thing I just thought of, is that the somewhat positive news, are mostly about someone or something losing a case. Just now I saw an article posted about how a big Russian company is having trouble because of the war, and that's considered good news. Even the positivity on here is based on negativity (or at the detriment of someone else). And to get the records straight, I think it is somewhat good that big companies are not doing so well, I just don't give a shit and I would prefer to see what next technology will make my life easier or what law got passed that will make other people's lives better.
- One other thing I just thought of, is that the somewhat positive news, are mostly about someone or something losing a case.
  I've noticed this aswell. Good news is when reddit is losing users, Teslas are rusting, a company get sued, corrupt cop is convicted etc. To me that just seems awfully cynical way of looking at the world.
  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Part of the purpose of any media is to illicit a reaction. In print media especially news, the "art" of writing has been distilled down to this because it is a easy way to garner views which in turn drives advertising/product sales. It's been shown that even negative publicity drives engagement without long-term consequences.
With content-engagement algorithms our monkey-brain doesn't stand much of a chance. Multiple of your favourite interests dispensing serotonin shots minute after minute. With the scroll confirmation giving basic feedback, let's not even get into the camera. I'll put money on pro versions not needing scrolling soon enough. Then doom scrolling will just become....

People simply like to complain, and here, they can get validation for those complaints.
- Also known as an echo chamber.

Yes I've noticed this. For the sake of my mental health, I don't mull over such issues for too long. I used to be angry at injustices I saw, but now I can't be bothered (I stopped caring to be angry).
- I've reached a point in my life where I can be against something without getting mad about it. Sure, sometimes you get a revolution (with all the problems that come with that), but in everyday life, people just aren't productive when they're angry. A person living a happy, fulfilled life is more likely to contribute to making the world a better place.
  
  I'm probably going to make a thread about this very topic some day. I find it curious how many people seem to be getting visibly angry when dealing with these topics and that's interesting because it's not how I feel at all. I'm not personally involved with most of these events. I can observe things from a distance, look at the available facts and then try and form an educated opinion on it. At no point do I feel any strong emotions about it and I don't see why I should. It just clouds our judgement. If one is primed to get angry every time they encounter a certain topic then I wouldn't put too much weight on their opinion about it because it comes from biased and emotionally loaded perspective. Doesn't mean they're wrong but I don't trust the reasoning of that kind of person.

I love it! It's freaking awesome, peeps expressing themselves and all. More of that please
- What if someone wants to express that they hate you ?
  
  I guess then I'm well informed of their feelings. Thanks for the info
  
  That is a path to the dark side.

I just block all the trolls and idiotic communities I see. Yes, it's tiresome, but that's the price of a federated platform.
- Or just learn to ignore it, like advertising : when I see a troll I just think "allright this is bullshit" and move on
  
  If you don't block them, you might see their bullshit again.

Yes, which is why I have every politics and politics-adjacent community, and entire instances blocked.

I don't follow any sort of news for this reason. No tech news, no car news, no nation news. Show me only cat pictures and stuff people with their hands, thank you very much.

Fucking YES

I try to filter out most of this negative stuff, but it has a downside. You become disconnected from the raw information feed if you don't occasionally just look at it. For short periods, it's tolerable, but then I just re-enable all filtering to reduce my cognitive load.
If I need to be cheered up, I prefer to look for science articles or news since these are generally about unbiased progress.

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