I’ve noticed a pattern. Every now and then, someone leaves a rude, mean, or snarky comment on one of my posts. Occasionally, out of curiosity, I’ll check their post history, and it’s almost always nothing but negativity. They never seem to have anything positive or kind to say about anything, whether it’s politics, hobbies, personal anecdotes, or whatever else. It’s just a constant stream of bitterness and hostility. After seeing so many accounts like this, it got me wondering: what do people actually get out of being like that? The idea of willingly immersing yourself in that much negativity is genuinely alien to me.
Different reasons, I asume. Here are my 3 favourites:
Attention seeking through rage bait. They want attention be it possitive or negative, the easiest is to be negative and to be a troll. Way too many people fall for it and give them their vanity when responding to them. Thus, remember never feed the troll.
Negative emotions are way more intense than possitive emotions and in social media most of the time they are pushed harder as more people interact with negative content. That can lead for younger people to feel like they need to be more negative than they should.
They are struggling themselves and don’t have help and don’t know they are struggling or know they are and just want others to struggle to.
Disclaimer, I’m not a psychologist, but these are my assumptions.
I’d also throw in the anonymity aspect as well.
Rage also fosters engagement. There’s likely corporate financed ragers out there for engagement purposes. Just like brand defenders/promoters.
i much prefer doing positive attention baiting. on tiktok especially i like going to small artists’ channels and saying nice things about their art (that i do mean), they reply quite often :)
sometimes i even get an amazing treat in return! - more art! not always, but sometimes, i notice artists posting more after i visit their channel a few times. It really makes me feel this comfortable warmth in my chest
I refer to it as “sowing karma”. I don’t believe actual karma exists. However, a small positive act can create an avalanche of other, small positive acts.
Whenever I do someone a favour, particularly random people. If they try or offer to pay me back, I tell them to pay it forward. I’ve no idea how many do, but even if it’s just 1 or 2, then the world is that bit better for all of us.
Keep being awesome!
While I don’t think this applies to many of the people being described here, I also feel like those of us who don’t really use much social media other than to reach out on public platforms to complain to companies could appear to be a bundle of pure negativity.
The way you misspell “positive” is causing me to have some negative reactions to you