Social media is full of many different topics and images for our viewing pleasure… and some for our not so great pleasure. These posts go from political, to pictures of babies, to meme’s, pictures of puppies, to the news, and endless other topics. As we scroll through our feeds there are NO topics or posts that warrant fully positive feedback. This is concerning as there are many things that are shared on social media with pure positive intent, yet negative comments and negative people still warrant a response.

Recently I have seen a news video that showed how a business spent lots of money on Christmas lights to give people something to go and see that would spread joy through their community at no cost to anyone but the business owner themselves.

That’s amazing and so very thoughtful and caring of such a company to offer that to their community when covid-19 has effected what we can and can’t do as well as many people’s incomes. Thus, these families may not even be able to take their children to a light show as it is too costly for them with their income changes, challenges, or struggles.

Do you think that this thread would have only had positive responses since it is such a selfless act of kindness?

Guess what! This is 2020 when someone somewhere is going to find a reason that this isn’t a good enough act.

Some of the not so positive responses are as followed:

• Wow, they should’ve used this money and the money to cover the electric bill to feed locals in the area (yes that would be a nice gesture, but it doesn’t take away that this could also be the highlight of a child’s or families year as this year has taken a lot away from a lot of people).
• They shouldn’t have done a light show because they should just help the needy (again not saying that isn’t important, but just because there are many more important things in the world, doesn’t take away that this act was still kind and filled with intentions that would bring happiness to their community.)
• Waste of money. Should use it to lower the prices of their food. (Really. It’s nice to see that while you are worried about your pockets at a fast-food establishment, the establishment is more worried about using their prophets to spread cheer to their community.)

Another article I stumbled upon was about how an embryo was frozen and preserved for 27 years and then used to help a family have a child gave them their healthy and happy little miracle. The mother is 29 and thus the headline of the article stated that the baby is only two years younger than her mother based on the date the embryo was frozen.

That is incredible! Science has never known how long an embryo can stay healthy after being frozen. This family now has a healthy baby that they couldn’t produce on their own. Even better this 27-year-old embryo was the sibling of the family’s other child that was preserved for 24 years. Therefore, this family was able to have two children that are biological siblings. That is an amazing thing. This couple has become a family through an amazing medical miracle. Where should the negative be found in that?

Some of these not so positive responses went as followed:

• The planet is overpopulated and this is acceptable? Our scientific knowledge and uncommon funding would be better off used elsewhere. (Wow! First off I hope you never have to struggle with infertility and child loss when you want your family someday. However, if you do I guess then you will see how much of a blessing it is that medical sciences can help families have families of their own that may not be possible the natural way.)
• Stupidity in people these days. (Okay. I guess it’s stupid for people to want to find ways to have children.)
• No one cares. (Then why are you bothered by it so much that you have to post a negative comment.)
• Technically the baby isn’t 27 because the age is only to be calculated from the date of birth. (Just because you disagree with the headline, doesn’t change the fact this was miraculous. Bring your weird negativity elsewhere.)

Anyhow… My take away from all of this is that no matter how good-hearted or amazingly positive a post is on your social media; someone somewhere is going to have something not so positive or negative to say about it.

Social media. The blessing and the curse. There are many positives that can be made about how social media shares news updates, new useful products, connections with family and friends, promotes your small businesses and can be an escape from life that we need at times. However, the negative is always going to shine through. There is going to be a negative opinion on nearly every single post that you see if you look close enough. We need to remember that this negativity has the ability to instill so much negativity in our own lives. Such as me writing this blog about how much negativity is on positive intended posts. It triggered me to write this as I was so angry seeing such comments on something that I know was meant with pure and optimistic intent. I have personally felt this anger and hostility that this type of negativity can instill.

Takeaway.

We need to work on being better. Not just me, not just you, all of us.

We need to realize that not everything we see is meant to be an argument, conflict, etc.

We need to remember that we can just scroll past some of the things that we disagree with.

We need to realize that we live in a world where negativity is thrown all around us even if we want to avoid it.

We need to make sure we aren’t consumed with social media as it alone can alter our moods and ruin our day solely because of the words of strangers on a feed.

We need to remember that there is beauty, kindness, and positivity all over the world and that we shouldn’t use the lenses of social media to see it because all we are going to see is the brokenness of negative people trying to ruin positive things.

We need to step away from our phones, computers, etc. and see all of the positive that truly does exist in this world.

We need not to be consumed by the negative in the world.

We need to not let this type of negativity ruin our lives.

We need to not be the negative that ruins the days, weeks, and lives of others.

We need to by all means go back to our roots and remember that in many cases… If we don’t have anything nice to say, then we shouldn’t say anything at all.