So often in our world, all we seem to hear is the negative. We've all said it: "I don't even watch the news anymore. All it is is bad news." We're all surprised when we hear something that touches our hearts on the 6 o clock broadcast. We're a depressed and anxious society. And yet, we try to give eachother glimpses of hope on a daily basis. We pass along text messages and emails telling people we cherish their friendship and we love them. We perform random acts of kindness. But at the end of the day, it is almost always those bad things we have heard that take precedence over our good thoughts. And unfortunately, there are people who have gotten to a point of obsession with these bad thoughts. They are the people who fuel others' anxieties. They are the people who dedicate websites to pure evil, for lack of better words. They may be mean or violent and wish bad things upon other people. They may spread be crooks or hackers. They may be depressed and dedicate websites to help others commit suicide. They may have bought into extreme conspiracy theories, claiming that everything in our society is a sign that the world as we know it is all going to a tragic end.
It's all enough to make me want to unplug my computer and my TV and just not even read magazines or billboards anymore. Unfortunately, as wonderful as mass media is, it only fuels these things. Fear sells. Put the apocolypse on the front of a magazine and you will sell it. Put swine flu on every newscast and you will have viewers. But too much knowledge is not always a good thing. Yes, we need to be informed. But unfortunately, there is no control over who gets to inform us. anyone can start a blog, publish a magazine or newspaper article. Anyone can buy a billboard and tell us that we're all going to die. And it's really unfortunate that having every bit of information in this wonderful, technological world at our fingertips is turning out to be more of a curse than a blessing.
I feel like we often forget how much this dear earth of ours has seen. Do we really think our world is worse than when ancient civilizations practiced barbaric forms of punishment and murder? Do we think we have it worse than those who lived through one or two world wars? Or the great depression?
I envy the Amish and their simple ways. Research has shown that they are some of the happiest people in our country. and why wouldn't they be?
I wish that positive attitudes and morality would spread like wildfire through our society, just like so many of these other ideas do. Because I think too often we forget that our lives and our world are what we make it. So if we want it to be a better place and we want to see smiling faces- Let's get off our rears! Let's smile first! Let's put a big sign on bathroom mirror so that every morning, we can see the words "What are you going to do to make this world a better one today?"
