SNWJ: Internet-Drops of Positivity in an Ocean of Hate

The Internet-Drops of Positivity in an Ocean of Hate

John Paul Derryberry

There was the post, screaming at me because it was indirectly about me. As the truth of the post rolled over me, all I could do was let out a booming laugh that would have startled a sleeping baby. It read: "Thanks social media, for the post about being positive. That changes my entire outlook on life. I think my mental health problems are cured." Jokes are best when they are rooted in truth and, oh boy, feeling like your social media communication affects the world is deeply rooted in our delusions of grandeur. The fact is, one positive social media post probably changes no one's life. Heck, with the way the internet works, it's an eye-drop of positive compared to a thunderstorm of negativity. It gets lost in the waves of everything else going on. We are dealing with a ratio of one positive interaction to two million negatives, especially on the internet. 

What is a guy like me supposed to do, knowing the truth of positive messaging on social media? I know that people's eyes roll when they see my posts, that they make comments about how it's futile for this guy to keep coming up every day with positive messages, or worse, that they just skip over me like they do my message and I no longer exist. I carry on because it's about the sum of my actions, not an isolated day. It's about putting out good vibes almost every day in a world that seems hell-bent on only recognizing anger and chaos. It's about understanding that a butterfly in New Mexico, flapping its wings at the right moment, can create a string of events that cause a hurricane in China. What if that event was a hurricane of positive energy sweeping over our culture?    

Maybe in our new culture of instant-gratification, superficially-crafted pictures, where the jump from struggling to success is interpreted as happening overnight, we have forgotten the long road we must travel to find the fruits of our labor. More than likely it's because, in my past, I fell victim to jumping after the instant-gratification fix for my problems and laughed at people doing the due diligence to point out the positive.  I understand the sentiment and questioning what the power of a 140-character post can do. It's not the daily post you should be gleaning a guiding light from. It should be the nearly 365-days-a-week, and years, of positive posts. I, and other people, make time to send positive messages in a world where we know it will be laughed at. This is the quest that I, and they, embarked on to make the world and your day a better place. Even in the face of your dismissiveness, we decide daily that the world needs encouraging words

If enough of us make this choice daily, those tiny drops of positivity will slowly and surely change the tide of the ocean of hate. It can no longer be dismissed and excused away as a mere daily ploy to fake being happy but becomes a movement. It becomes a growing wave, knowing that it cannot cure anyone's mental health with words, but can wash away the pain for a second. It will slowly rise into a tidal wave washing away the chilling waters of loneliness, because I know it's easier to swim in your mental health when the water is a more comfortable temperature.