Looking out over the breathtaking view of Puget Sound, surrounded by women that I didn’t even know a few days ago, I was astonished at the energy in the room. The feeling of love and unity was almost tangible! Everyone knows that yoga retreats are supposed to be about health and wellness, but we were at a whole new level. I wished we never had to leave, and looking around at the glowing faces of my guests, it was obvious they felt the same way. But I bet you didn’t open this article looking for good news. We are a society always searching for drama and sensationalism. We hunger for bad news, and that is the very point of this blog.
Bad News Sells Better
Bad news travels fast
It’s never a good idea to live in fear, but like it or not, it sells much better than stories about love. The Pew Research Center conducted a study on two decades of American news preferences and found that overall peoples’ interests haven’t changed much over time. In general, the public is most likely to read articles about war, devastating weather, disasters, money, and crime, before anything else. I’ve seen this phenomenon proven on my own blog. If I post about a beautiful humanitarian experience I had on my travels, it gets a lot fewer likes and shares than an article I posted about losing my handbag and ending up 3,000 miles away from home with no money or ID.
Why do we Enjoy Bad News?
Earthquake damage in Chisapani, Nepal
Like it or not, all media is in the business to sell, and the only way it can succeed is by attracting readers. The most effective way to attract an audience is to provide a story about something shocking. Don Henley had a hit song about it in 1982 called “Dirty Laundry,” and not much has changed since then. If watching or reading a story can save us from some looming peril, or give us something to discuss around the water cooler at work, then maybe we’ll stop scrolling through social media long enough to read it.
The question is, why do we like bad news? Could it be because it takes our mind off our personal struggles? When we are focused on a real live train wreck, or how Hurricane Michael has caused millions of dollars of damage in Florida and killed 18 people, we don’t feel quite so bad about being late on our mortgage. Those two speeding tickets I got in two days (yes, this just happened to me!) compared to natural disasters, look pretty insignificant.
The World is Getting Better, Not Worse
Fear less, love more
When we focus on bad news we often get the feeling that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, like things have gotten much worse and there is no hope for humanity. But the fact is, conditions worldwide are improving overall. According to the United Nation’s Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, education, and income, literacy rates are up and crime is down. Life expectancy has improved globally as well. Sure, there are a few areas that have declined, but in general, it’s good news, but that is BORING!
Garbage in Garbage Out
I learned early on in my career in technology that if you put garbage in you get garbage out. In other words, the conclusions generated from the data gathered can only be as accurate as the data that was initially entered. It is the same with our minds. If you focus on negative, that is the type of thinking you’ll generate. If you focus on the positive, you’ll attract positive energy and have an improved sense of wellbeing. The choice is yours.