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It's interesting that reactions to stories about parenting are always default-negative no matter what. People are saying this stat just shows we are smothering

It's interesting that reactions to stories about parenting are always default-negative no matter what. People are saying this stat just shows we are smothering our children. Had it been the opposite (half as much time), people would be accusing parents of outsourcing childcare.

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
Negative responses trigger a greater emotional response, thus garner more attention and upvotes. The fact that negative content commonly reaches the top is just a side effect of the voting system, which reflects human psychology. As an aside, I think the rise of subreddits like r/wholesomememes and other purely positive subreddits on r/all was done intentionally to counter the rampant negativity on Reddit. I think it's great. I wonder what kind of cultural guidance systems the mods on this site have in place.
azernik 9y ago
But probably different people. Communities are very capable of holding conflicting viewpoints.
- watwut 9y ago
  The point is, only angry and negative people voice their opinions and positively minded people don't. If you look at threads about something else, (say economy or politics) there are typically both optimostic and pessimistic people and even some discussions between those groups. When it comes to parenting and children, positive opinions are rarely heard.
  - rjzzleep 9y ago
    Honestly, if you want to make a point, you should work on the way you phrase it. > only angry and negative voice their opinions i.e. bad people > positively minded i.e. good people I know you probably didn't think about it that much. Personally, I could start a rant about toxic culture now, but I'll leave it at that. If you don't want to create an aggressive response, maybe refrain from calling people that disagree with you angry and negative. EDIT: here's a suggestion for a good way to phrase the actual meaning you might have been thinking about: People that are happy about the way something is, are less likely to complain about it. Yes, true, but that by itself doesn't make the thing either good or bad.
    - frenchy 9y ago
      I hope you can appreciate the irony of ranting about angry people :)
      - eropple 9y ago
        The post to which you are replying is not a rant by any reasonable definition of the term and what 'rjzzleep is saying should (probably won't, but should) be taken to heart.
    - watwut 9y ago
      In what world are angry people necessary bad? Or negative people? And no, positively minded people are not necessary good people. That is absurd claim. "People that are happy about the way something is, are less likely to complain about it." I did not made that claim nor wanted to. Which is why II contrasted it with other topics, so that it is clearer that parenting is treated differently. Lastly, your comment seems to be the only negative reaction. As of now, there is not even comment disagreeing with me (which would be different then negative of course).
    - bromuro 9y ago
      Your comment does look indeed angry and negative :)
    - hexane360 9y ago
      Wow, you completely redefine what they're saying and then attack your own redefinition. "People that are happy about the way something is, are less likely to complain about it." This isn't even what OP was arguing. It's more along the line of "People that are happy are less likely to voice that satisfaction than people that are unhappy are likely to voice their dissatisfaction".
  - timthelion 9y ago
    Are you angry and negative about the negativity of the opinions expressed on the internet?
    - fleitz 9y ago
      ^ This.
      - sctb 9y ago
        You've been violating the guidelines a lot. Could you please take a look and stop? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
asdjasldkjkljd 9y ago
Capitalism often preys on fear, and it's incredibly easy to scare someone about their children. It's probably some of the easiest clickbait someone could write (i.e., won't somebody please think of the children?!). As a parent I was kind of surprised by the instinct to protect your children at all costs. I knew it existed, but feeling it is a different beast. It's hard to always be conscious of it, and many people aren't at all.
Dylan16807 9y ago
> Had it been the opposite (half as much time), people would be accusing parents of outsourcing childcare. It's not exactly strange for "X time allocation has doubled" and "X time allocation has halved" to both be bad. If we back off the argument to looking at smaller changes, and truly looking at whether less or more is better... I'm not sure if parenting is special here. Maybe it's just that it's really easy to think of examples where people do too much, and examples where people do too little. So a change in either direction is a bad thing for those people, especially if they're more prone to follow along the way they were already going.

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago

Negative responses trigger a greater emotional response, thus garner more attention and upvotes. The fact that negative content commonly reaches the top is just a side effect of the voting system, which reflects human psychology. As an aside, I think the rise of subreddits like r/wholesomememes and other purely positive subreddits on r/all was done intentionally to counter the rampant negativity on Reddit. I think it's great. I wonder what kind of cultural guidance systems the mods on this site have in place.

azernik 9y ago

But probably different people. Communities are very capable of holding conflicting viewpoints.

watwut 9y ago
The point is, only angry and negative people voice their opinions and positively minded people don't. If you look at threads about something else, (say economy or politics) there are typically both optimostic and pessimistic people and even some discussions between those groups. When it comes to parenting and children, positive opinions are rarely heard.
- rjzzleep 9y ago
  Honestly, if you want to make a point, you should work on the way you phrase it. > only angry and negative voice their opinions i.e. bad people > positively minded i.e. good people I know you probably didn't think about it that much. Personally, I could start a rant about toxic culture now, but I'll leave it at that. If you don't want to create an aggressive response, maybe refrain from calling people that disagree with you angry and negative. EDIT: here's a suggestion for a good way to phrase the actual meaning you might have been thinking about: People that are happy about the way something is, are less likely to complain about it. Yes, true, but that by itself doesn't make the thing either good or bad.
  - frenchy 9y ago
    I hope you can appreciate the irony of ranting about angry people :)
    - eropple 9y ago
      The post to which you are replying is not a rant by any reasonable definition of the term and what 'rjzzleep is saying should (probably won't, but should) be taken to heart.
  - watwut 9y ago
    In what world are angry people necessary bad? Or negative people? And no, positively minded people are not necessary good people. That is absurd claim. "People that are happy about the way something is, are less likely to complain about it." I did not made that claim nor wanted to. Which is why II contrasted it with other topics, so that it is clearer that parenting is treated differently. Lastly, your comment seems to be the only negative reaction. As of now, there is not even comment disagreeing with me (which would be different then negative of course).
  - bromuro 9y ago
    Your comment does look indeed angry and negative :)
  - hexane360 9y ago
    Wow, you completely redefine what they're saying and then attack your own redefinition. "People that are happy about the way something is, are less likely to complain about it." This isn't even what OP was arguing. It's more along the line of "People that are happy are less likely to voice that satisfaction than people that are unhappy are likely to voice their dissatisfaction".
- timthelion 9y ago
  Are you angry and negative about the negativity of the opinions expressed on the internet?
  - fleitz 9y ago
    ^ This.
    - sctb 9y ago
      You've been violating the guidelines a lot. Could you please take a look and stop? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

asdjasldkjkljd 9y ago

Capitalism often preys on fear, and it's incredibly easy to scare someone about their children. It's probably some of the easiest clickbait someone could write (i.e., won't somebody please think of the children?!). As a parent I was kind of surprised by the instinct to protect your children at all costs. I knew it existed, but feeling it is a different beast. It's hard to always be conscious of it, and many people aren't at all.

Dylan16807 9y ago

> Had it been the opposite (half as much time), people would be accusing parents of outsourcing childcare. It's not exactly strange for "X time allocation has doubled" and "X time allocation has halved" to both be bad. If we back off the argument to looking at smaller changes, and truly looking at whether less or more is better... I'm not sure if parenting is special here. Maybe it's just that it's really easy to think of examples where people do too much, and examples where people do too little. So a change in either direction is a bad thing for those people, especially if they're more prone to follow along the way they were already going.