Nothing is true until it's posted in LJ...

[jducoeur]

Note to self: stop being so damned negative.

I was reminded again yesterday of something I've been noticing all year: somewhere along the line, I picked up a habit of complaining about minor stuff, out of habit more than anything else. I think it's a leftover from the depression of the past couple of years, but it's neither especially useful nor healthy. As a matter of mental hygiene, that's a habit well worth losing...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I've found LJ, or at least our corner of it, encourages this behavior through how we comment on each other's posts. Moody, negative posts get more attention comment-wise than comparable positive posts. (Actual content posts get more attention than either, but those require effort to write.) If you let yourself be swayed by this it can lead down that slope, and even if you don't others do get swayed and you take it as a social norm. Just something to be aware of as a potential effector on mood and behavior.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Plus, it's easier to be verbose when feeling a strong emotion -- however, if it's a happy strong emotion, one is usually off doing whatever started the feeling. If it's a negative one, often the opposite, and a computer may be near, and voila, a depressive post.

I have a friend who is always down in the dumps on LJ about his work, his hobby, and his progeny. It's very depressing; maybe one in 10 posts (or less) are "life is OK" posts. I sure hope it doesn't reflect reality.

You're not in that camp yet, Jducoeur, but it's a good thing to guard against.

[siderea]

True, but was jducoeur speaking of LJ? Perhaps here is some filter to which I am not party on which the negativity is being posted, but as much of his journal I am seeing is pretty relentlessly upbeat, with rave reviews of good things to digest and good places to get 'em, and thoughts on solutions to problems.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to imply that he was only being negative on LJ -- I don't have a large enough sample set. However, behavior learned in one medium does seem to carry over into other media. I have a number of overlapping social circles who are centered on electronic fora, and in each circle the conventions that were converged to online tend to arise in FTF, and tend to color the people's behavior in other interactions (this is only really observable in people whom I know from multiple online circles). But boy is that an essay for another day, when I have more evidence...

Also, it was more of an observational effect -- that you see that other people post their negativity, and that in turn influences your behavior -- rather than evidence from his past journal I was going on. Not "you've been negative in your journal", but "folks are negative in their journals around here; you've noticed this in yourself -- perhaps it's one influence?"

[jducoeur]

Correct -- it's mainly in personal conversation that I've noticed a tendency to waste time on the negative. (And even more, I still have a tendency to mope and/or worry internally, left over from the depression...)

[jducoeur]

Hmm. I don't think that effect is getting to me too much, solely because I don't post all that many emotion-centric posts. That is, the considerable majority of my posts are intellectual in nature; even the navel-gazing ones tend to be overintellectualized.

So there might be a bit of effect, but I don't think it's a major vector. Mostly, this seems to be showing up in conversation, and especially within my own head -- I'm tending to borrow trouble for no particularly good reasons...