If it Bleeds it Leads
Me: My WIFI is constantly running slow. Why is this taking soooo long? WTAF?
Reality: Really? You mean that service that instantly connects you to everything and everyone in the known universe, retrieves any piece of information you desire across space satellites, trans-oceanic cables, and millions of miles of fibers made of glass and pulsing light? The one that you depend on every day, all day, and that is actually available (and fast) 99.97% of the time?
Me: Over-reaction?
Reality: Ya think?
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. – Benjamin Franklin
Truth is…we are all over-reactors. We live in an over-reaction society. We’re trigger warned, over-stimulated and hyper-sensitive…to the ebbs and flows of life. We seem to have lost our ability to put the normal challenges of life into perspective, to anticipate (and thus mitigate) those challenges, and to place them in a broader historical context.
It’s a crisis unlike any we’ve seen in human history.
Kidding. It’s not.
But it is an issue…in my humble opinion. And here’s why:
Over-reaction, hyperbolic outrage, jumping to the most negative conclusion…these are all thieves of JOY. They are symptoms of a mindset that is evermore conditioned into the human psyche.
Information and media have never been a more dominant influence on our mental condition. We are bombarded constantly with a stream of input meant to manipulate and control us.
Think about this: The mantra that is still held in the highest regard, at the largest and most powerful news organizations on earth is: If it BLEEDS, then it LEADS.
Sensationalistic headlines, meant to grab your attention and keep you engaged (and manipulated)…based in FEAR.
Our own over-reactions, hyper-sensitivities and rapid response outrages…all based in FEAR.
My advice? CHILL.
The world has never been a better place. You have never had this much opportunity. Your future has never been this bright.
Yes, there are challenges ahead. Anticipate them. Expect them. And have the perspective to understand that your worst challenges are the best possible scenarios for many on this earth.
Is it easy? No. But try and be mindful. Be a little pro-active. Anticipate. Even unplug…from those sources that wish to make you a slave to fear. For most of those fears, those outrages and those worries…will never, ever, ever come to be. And that’s no exaggeration.
How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened. – Thomas Jefferson
Me: There is never, ever, ONE flight that I take that isn’t delayed somehow. Every single time I fly, it is a hassle.
Reality: Yeah, I got your back on that one.
Fear = false evidence appearing real, as we as a society traverse the media and instantaneous information we have forgotten to analyze and be critical thinkers to the barage of information we are exposed to. Take a step back and analyze the information prior to judgment. Mental health has been deemed influenced by media and self thought, as you struggle because you don’t have matching shoes remember there are those without feet.
Lots to digest there Mike. Thank you for these thoughts. #grateful
There’s not question that non-stop media and input are affecting mental health. Tougher and tougher to take that step back…but gratitude is always a decision away.
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