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Articles that engender good feelings, either by revealing a positive story or reporting a positive event, do not receive nearly the same level of engagement. A
by glitchc 5y ago
Articles that engender good feelings, either by revealing a positive story or reporting a positive event, do not receive nearly the same level of engagement.
Anger sells. Outrage sells. Media companies have known it since the dawn of the newspaper. Bad news generates anger and outrage, hence all news is bad news. It's a natural consequence of the human condition.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoToday I discovered a video of someone who walks into a forest in winter and builds an overnight shelter out of pine trees, lights a fire and sleeps the night in -25C/-9F temperatures with just a woolen blanket. There is no talking. His channel has about 380k subscribers. The video has TEN MILLION views. So many of the comments are of the form "this is the most beautiful/relaxing/wonderful thing I've seen in years". Things that engender good feelings do propagate.
- ben_w 5y agoI like stuff like that. A similar (but warmer) channel I subscribe to is “Primitive Technology” [0], and most of my subscriptions are about what is good in the world rather than what is bad. Exceptions on my subscription list are Kurzgesagt (self-described as “Optimistic nihilism”) and the maker of the machinima “Freeman’s Mind” [1](voicing the silent protagonist as an antihero). Thing is, I’m not normal. If my nature was the modal average of humanity, the horror genre and tabloids and spectator sports and celebrity gossip wouldn’t exist. [0] https://youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA https://youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA [1] https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6PNZBb6b9LvDWpI-5CPYUxG1Rnm-vr9V https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6PNZBb6b9LvDWpI-5CPYUxG1...
- _moof 5y agoThere's even a news industry adage about this: "If it bleeds, it leads."