so basically you're saying it's ok to create positivity around a topic on a regular basis, but not negativity, even though the negative consequences happen more often than not?
It really depends on how the negativity is expressed, and about what. Being negative about something that you can change is defeatism. being negative about something that will happen and can do nothing about is at best unhelpful for anyone.
Being negative about how you reacted to something, how you did something, or how something was done (without pointing fingers) is extremely helpful for me, it push me to improve or change where needed.
That's exactly the thing though - - the corporate positive mindset isn't about avoiding needless negativity, it's simply enforcing causeless positivity and optimism. You might be the type of person who simply isn't a bucket full of sunshine all the time without necessarily being "negative", though in the corporate world you'd be considered that if you are anything less than super positive.
I don't think it's a question of "is negativity good or bad", I see it as more of why can't we just let people be themselves? As long as we have a healthy mix, we should have all types of views and personalities represented, en though that are slightly more negative.
I find your premise that I should be positive rather odd. Isn't negativity sometimes warranted?
Additionally, my goal when writing isn't to create more "information dense" comments. My goal is to communicate information, ideas, and emotions. Sometimes negativity, profanity, and rhetorical questions are my preferred methods to accomplish that goal.
I believe that there is too much negativity going around, and I try my best to nudge things in a positive direction, and reading your comment I feel happy that it now that is also being reflected in how I write.
Negativity is sort of the natural state of discussing things. If you have something positive to say, it's often vapid or redundant. "Yay, this is good!" isn't really saying much.
Also, when you have a dissenting opinion, you're more likely to be vocal.
I think as humans we are prediposed to attend to negativity rather than positivity. If things are well, we can safely ignore them. If things are not well we need to attend them to potentially fix them or arm ourself with knowledge that will prevent it again.
Obviously, positive and supportive mean different things to different people. I, for example, don't see how you can be positive, supportive, but criticize other people's ideas and work they are doing at the same time. So, at best it's a neutral place, leaning towards negativity, since expressing criticism substantially is a lot of effort, it's easier to simply call bad ideas as bad and move on.
The research is actually about two things, safe place to speak up and empathy.
I appreciate this all-too-rare take. It concerns me that it's so popular to be negative. I believe a lot more good can come about with a positive attitude -- honest and critical at times, yes, but at some point you just gotta put your boots on and get to work.
I am sure it depends on the topic you are talking about. When I see something that doesn't match my ideals, I start talking about it, which creates some sort of a negative atmosphere.
While I am sure the people around me value that perspicacity to some extent, I feel like sometimes they wish I would just shut up and let things be like they are without focussing on imperfections that surround us.
So being positive probably is a better way to make people appreciate your presence.
The world is a messed up place. Sure, we shouldn't be bombarded by this fact day in and day out, but I personally think it's a good thing to remind yourself now and then how fucked up the world we live in can be - to maintain a sort of tether to the "reality" of the world's current messed up situation; it puts a lot into perspective.
Any thoughts? Am I wrong for thinking this way? (P.s. I have not yet read the OP's article)
How about the toxicity of attacking positivity? This world has WAY too much negativity right now and it's downright harmful to human psyche. People are freaking giving up on the world and deciding that they should never have children because they think they'd just be bring them into a doomed world. That's when you know negativity has gone so far.
Some toxic positivity on the odd occasion to counteract the nonsensical rampant toxic negativity is fine with me. It's gotten amazingly ridiculous. People are even cheering for good things to fail now out of some kind of warped jealousy.
And no, for those who thought this, I didn't read the article.
I think you are on the right track. Positivity and Negativity are useful tools for discovering the truth. Favoring either very strongly has significant downsides.
The problem with Negativity is it can obsess over problems while not doing the harder work of actually coming up with a plausible solution. If a project is truly screwed, then maybe "tell the stakeholders that we need 9 more months instead of 3 (instead of pretending we only need 3 more months for the next 2 months)" might qualify as a positive solution. Or "3 months is obviously wrong. It might take 6. It might take 12. Let's invest 2 days in figuring out where we are immediately."
True enough, but it's not just about making anyone happy.
Even thick-skinned people have a hard time with another type of negativity:
"Negativity" doesn't only mean high quality criticism, or pessimism.
It also refers to low quality, demanding, draining, and often competitive and repetitive discussions where critics are full of it.
Sometimes there is also bullying, always talking over, making out that coworkers are stupid, taking credit for others work, not pulling their own weight, trying to trick people, manipulating people to their disadvantage, insinuations, word-twisting and game-playing, that sort of thing.
That sort of negativity is draining. It's negative in an energy and morale sense.
That's not about hurting anyone's feelings, and it's not even about sadness and happiness.
It's just that some ongoing interactions drain everyone's energy without giving much back in exchange.
Everyone does it occasionally. Some people do it a lot - those can destroy a team and a company.
reply