A lot of people complain about how they get depressed whenever they watch or read the news; Wars, starvation, natural disasters, plane crashes… and the long list goes on in our mad world.
A new website called HappyNews.com takes another approach to news, reporting only the upbeat and happy news, leaving out the depressing bits.
Personally, I’m not too into the idea. I understand how sometimes the bad news gets too overwhelming and that it just depresses people how much bad stuff is going on in the world, but well the solution is not to turn a blind eye to it all and act like it’s not happening.
If we all did that, all these bad things would keep going on and getting worse, maybe till there comes a day there are no happy news left.
A big problem in many places of the world today is how societies ignore the problems within them and act as if they don’t exist, not facing up to them and trying to find solutions for them, sort of trying to wish those problems away, but that never works, and the problems just keep mulitplying and growing until they result in a crisis, which is harder to face and solve.
It’s only a problem if you don’t keep yourself well-informed with what’s going on with the rest of the world, AKA. the bad/depressing stuff. So despite bad events going on everyday in the world, that’s really the only thing that’s being reported. Good stuff is going on in the world too, believe it or not. haha! And I suppose, to be well-informed, you should know that too. It’s of no use to be an activist if all the depressing news make you a pessimistic cynic. Activists must always have hope and reach for a positive outcome.
I’m only saying all this because some time last year, I was an angry American. I hated the American president, hated California’s governor, hated about 51% of America who voted for Bush, and hated where America was headed. I read the news everyday and the more I read, the more pissed off I’d get. And then one day, I was hit with an epiphany. Several things happened in a matter of one day and it made me realize that although America’s got a lot of changes that I’d like to make, the people here are pretty damn awesome. I’m not going to go through the details, but sometimes through all the commotion, you forget about the people.
Bleh… it’s complicated. Reading some good news isn’t so bad. You just don’t wanna use it as your main source of information. We don’t live in a happy wonderland.
Of course, I totally agree with you.
I didn’t mean that we should only focus on the bad news, on the contrary, I think we should always be optimistic and believe in the good that exists in people.
My idea is basically the one that you made at the end, which is that reading some good news is good as long as you don’t forget the rest.
And I totally understand what you mean about realizing how people are awesome. I fully agree.
Horoscopes: “Good news! The stars do not control your destiny. You do.”
looool 😀
even more depressing is happynews.com sometimes doesnt even have news that is very happy. there are happy stories all over the place. everywhere. every day. i see great things happening all the time in my city alone. it would almost seem like the happynews.com people are still having a problem connecting to happy news, or that they are intentionally going out of their way to report mediocre news. just today, i visited the site and i read some article celebrating schoolyard treadmills that kids can use while on their recess. gosh that makes me mad. argh! somebody should really get these guys in touch with real happy news. and quick!