The Bad Outweighs the Good

Have you ever felt that when you do something wrong everyone hears about it? Even more unnerving is when you do something really spectacular and nobody knows about it or chooses not to care. Why is that? Why does everyone enjoy taking pleasure in our poor choices or a once-in-a-lifetime mistake, yet no one wants to take the time out to say congratulations, nice job, or even thank you?

I can't answer that question for you, but if it's any comfort, I'm here to let you know you're not alone. I remember this same theory being taught to us in my marketing class in high school. Our teacher reminded us more than once that it is important to make the least amount of mistakes possible when it comes to your business or product. 'You may be doing something great,' she had said 'but it only takes one little mistake. A customer is more likely to share stories about a problem they had with your company/product than a good experience.'

What really gets to me though is that this concept applies to our daily news as well. I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person, but when it comes to current events I'm completely clueless. Why, you may ask? It's a simple answer, really. I refuse to watch the news (well, most of the time). Most of the information or news I am knowledgeable about is through research on the web. I heard the basic piece of information from some individual and was intrigued enough to pursue the whole story. Why do I refuse to watch the news? Because it's all bad news.

Think about it. You turn on the news, what do you hear? There will most likely be a report about the economy being so lousy, people losing jobs, businesses closing down, numerous murders or robberies that have occurred, and of course, the latest on the BP oil spill. Think about it. You pull out the daily newspaper, what do you read? In Toledo you'll read an article about people losing jobs, money cuts being made, schools shutting down, murders and robberies, and of course, more about the BP oil spill. Why is it that all we hear is bad news? Well, I believe it has something to do with the fact that it's been proven that bad news sells.

So now my concern becomes, why is it that bad news sells? Why are we as people so interested in bad things? People always turn to the theory that listening to other people's misfortunes and being able to criticize them for it makes us feel better about our own lives, but is that really true?

After watching a half hour segment of the news, I honestly usually feel quite depressed. I don't understand how people can be so stupid, greedy, or cruel. I try to think back on something positive that was discussed, and the only thing I can usually come up with is something from the sports segment. It's upsetting for me. I understand it's important to be aware of what's going on in the world, and I understand that there are a lot of bad things that happen, but can't we include some of the positive things too? I want to hear more about people helping people, more about community events, more about community service. I want to hear or read a story that makes me think "wow, I am proud to be associated with this business, person, country, etc." instead of shaking my head and saying "tisk tisk tisk" because the government, community, some rockstar of the week, etc. has done something idiotic AGAIN.

I don't know about you, but I have my own problems to handle and big decisions to make. We don't appreciate it when peers are gossiping about our shortcomings or misfortunes. So why do we enjoy exploiting celebrities and political figures? Maybe there wouldn't be so many problems in the world if people stopped worrying about others mistakes and focused on fixing their own.