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There is a huge difference between positive news, and news represented with an overly positive tone. A new tech/drug/math/specie/dino bone is, to me, positive

There is a huge difference between positive news, and news represented with an overly positive tone. A new tech/drug/math/specie/dino bone is, to me, positive news. It don't need the reporter to scream "awesome" and add kittens when presenting it. The problem is not positive news. It's that the US is becoming a parody of a 1960 sitcom, like in the excellent movie "Pleasantville", where everything is "fantastic". Everybody is "so excited" about their new project, or "passionate" about their work. Their "best friend" is "amazing". Everybody wants to hype up everything, and there is no more space for appreciating reality as it is. You can't say chicken wings are breath taking. What will be left to talk about your greatest achievements or the birth of you child ? This is what depresses people. Not positive news.

sysbin 7y ago
I agree with mostly everything except when it comes to drugs I’m not impressed. My perspective is that a large crowd of potential buyers must need the “researchers find the new drug results exiting” to actually make their transactions. Similar for a mindset of clicking on ads. The marketers would prefer ads on content making a person genuinely excited.
- sametmax 7y ago
  A person should say "excited" when they are in the same state a 5yo is when taken to ice cream. You can be excited about a new drug you created. But I don't know many adults that would feel 5yo-excitement about anything. They may be proud. They may feel happy. But genuine excitation is rare, not a ten times a week event, even if your life is great. So they should keep "excited" for those rare occasions when they are, indeed, excited. We don't communicate anymore. We do PR. PR is fake, fake is depressing. It's like with sugar. We figured that adding a fake excitement to something sells it better. So we added it everywhere. And now we need enormous doses of it, nuances are lost and it's not healthy.
eeZah7Ux 7y ago
Spot on. However, rather than a parody, this is quite orwellian. Even more so when people who don't adopt this communication style are shunned for being "negative".
Nasrudith 7y ago
Fake or forced positivity is really the most depressing thing to deal with from my experience with depression. It suggests that the positive is fundamentally a lie. On some level it is seen through as fake and dystopian - turning even being yourself into a luxury for the sake of delusion of others - either some high up who thinks it will aid metrics or the casual cruelty of a community who asks if you tried just not being depressed and clearly sees you as the "troublemaker" for not going along with their bullshit because you literally lack the motivation.

sysbin 7y ago

I agree with mostly everything except when it comes to drugs I’m not impressed. My perspective is that a large crowd of potential buyers must need the “researchers find the new drug results exiting” to actually make their transactions. Similar for a mindset of clicking on ads. The marketers would prefer ads on content making a person genuinely excited.

sametmax 7y ago
A person should say "excited" when they are in the same state a 5yo is when taken to ice cream. You can be excited about a new drug you created. But I don't know many adults that would feel 5yo-excitement about anything. They may be proud. They may feel happy. But genuine excitation is rare, not a ten times a week event, even if your life is great. So they should keep "excited" for those rare occasions when they are, indeed, excited. We don't communicate anymore. We do PR. PR is fake, fake is depressing. It's like with sugar. We figured that adding a fake excitement to something sells it better. So we added it everywhere. And now we need enormous doses of it, nuances are lost and it's not healthy.

eeZah7Ux 7y ago

Spot on. However, rather than a parody, this is quite orwellian. Even more so when people who don't adopt this communication style are shunned for being "negative".

Nasrudith 7y ago

Fake or forced positivity is really the most depressing thing to deal with from my experience with depression. It suggests that the positive is fundamentally a lie. On some level it is seen through as fake and dystopian - turning even being yourself into a luxury for the sake of delusion of others - either some high up who thinks it will aid metrics or the casual cruelty of a community who asks if you tried just not being depressed and clearly sees you as the "troublemaker" for not going along with their bullshit because you literally lack the motivation.