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In this era of "incite outrage-at-the-moment-to-get-that-click" clickbait news and postings pushed to us by mainstream media and social networks, is it a wonder that society is in the current state that its in..?
This article at NPR states that even if you're not aware of it, it's likely that your emotions will influence someone around you today. This can happen during our most basic exchanges, say on your commute to work. "If someone smiles at you, you smile back at them," says sociologist Nicholas Christakis of Yale University. "That's a very fleeting contagion of emotion from one person to another."
But it doesn't stop there. Emotions can spread through social networks almost like the flu or a cold. And, the extent to which emotions can cascade is eye-opening.
For instance, Christakis' research has shown that if you start to become happier with your life, a friend living close by has a 25 percent higher chance of becoming happy too. And your partner is more likely to feel better as well. The happiness can even spread to people to whom you're indirectly connected.
To document this, Christakis and his colleagues mapped out the face-to-face interactions of about 5,000 people living in one town, over the course of 32 years. Their emotional ups and downs were documented with periodic surveys. "We were able to show that as one person became happy or sad, it rippled through the network," Christakis says.
It's not just happiness that spreads, unhappiness and anger can be contagious, too. Should negative-clickbait be banned as a social threat?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Monday February 25 2019, @10:58PM (2 children)
While I've not read the book or know whether this guy is a nut job from either side or not. The premise seems to be pretty sound. There seems to have been a definite uptick in lots of yelling without much discussion in politics. Though, maybe that's just the fallout of a lot more people being able to interact together, that didn't used to. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39312315-addicted-to-outrage [goodreads.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday February 26 2019, @05:49AM (1 child)
The headline immediately struck me as likely to be a load of bull itself. I found it difficult to credit. Most adults have more self-control and sense than that, and aren't so easily baited. The body presents a more nuanced picture.
Must remember that the media's strongest bias is towards drama. They lean that way much harder than they lean right or left. Everything they touch, they warp to report it as more dramatic than it actually was.
And I suspect our bigger problem is outrage fatigue, not addiction to outrage. There's a ton of crap that happens daily, and the perps often get away with it because the public is too fatigued to force action on the matter.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 26 2019, @03:34PM
Have you seen the hive of scum and villainy that is Facebook lately? When one side thinks the other is 1000% evil, because they don't agree with what the other thinks. You can't have a proper discussion. Since, they're obviously Hitler and should be putdown like the dogs they are.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"