“Give Peace a Chance”

Let me be the first to say I love social media! I really do! Catching up with friends and family members, and seeing all the pictures of the fun things they are doing. This is great and I think what it is truly all about and one of the main reasons I myself do it. What I don’t like is all the negative stuff that comes with it. There are certain posts I don’t even look at due to the fact I know what the comments will be like. I scroll by those things just like I tell others to do. But what if it happens on your own page, your own posts?

A friend, who by the way is the sweetest person anyone could ever hope to meet, recently had to take down a post on Facebook. She had innocently put something up she thought would be thought provoking and wanted to see what others would think. It got nasty very quickly causing her to take the post down altogether.

What is that? Why do people do this? Is it the fact no one can see them or they have no voice in the real world so they use it more online? I don’t know the answer to this. I guess I am from a different era, one where we respected others opinions whether we agreed with them or not. Why can’t we just have an opinion and not attack others for their’s. I am constantly saddened by this and it always makes me wonder why this has to happen.

I do have a theory about why it happens… I think the news outlets are the biggest contributors of this and it escalates from there. They stir the pot. Back in the day, the news anchors would tell a story, most often with no emotion and no opinion. It amazed me how they could do this. But now we know how they feel and where they stand the moment they put it out there. Also once the story is told, we see it over and over and over again. There is even name given for each story. We see all of those related to it and how they impacted the story. The victim is forgotten, it is all about the one who committed the crime. It glorifies the perpetrator and the negativity.

Don’t even get me started on the political posts and comments… I never read or comment on this and really, I don’t want know how people feel about politics and candidates. Especially the people close to me. I think it is better that way. My Dad always believed you don’t talk about politics or religion.And I think that holds true here. I don’t want to know who they want for president or how they feel about the one we have. We as a nation have never been so biased and divided. What is with all the name calling and lack of respect, not just for the man, but the office? Where did all of this hatred come from? And I am not just talking about the current one. It started way before this.

My point to this is, all this negativity is not good for us, not just as a nation but us as human beings. Negativity impacts our health, it affects your mood which affects your brain and total overall well being. Everyone is so quick to react to any situation that comes up and usually not in a good way. Take a minute to breathe before you react.

So, my personal quest these days is to try and find the good in every situation. I would love to see more good stories on the news and on social media. I try to do this everyday and challenge others to do it as well. Let’s stop all the negativity and truly “give peace a chance”. I challenge everyone to try this, just one small change can have a huge impact.

Kumbaya, my friends, Kumbaya! (for those of you under 50, you may have to look this up..LOL)