It seems that lately all you see on the internet are heated, hateful diatribes about everything from Olympic coverage to chicken sandwiches. (And let’s not even mention politics or religion!)
What happened to civil discourse, respecting the opinions of others and agreeing to disagree? Why is it that those who don’t agree with us become the enemy? Why must we always be “right” and defend that righteousness with our last breath? What makes us so sure that the opinions and beliefs we hold are the right ones to have and that the opinions and beliefs of those who don’t agree with us must be wrong? In short, when did our civilization lose its civility?
Scotty Monty shares a similar sentiment in his post, When Did We Get So Nasty?
“… this behavior has become so insidious – so acceptable – that suddenly, some people don’t care who they offend or how antisocial it makes them look; they just seem to want to make themselves feel better by putting others down.”
this morning, I was delighted to find that this topic is one that many of the people I respect in Social have been discussing of late and from this discussion came the idea for a movement to turn all this negativity around by declaring today, August 14th, #PositivelySocial Day.
The goal is to make a positive impact in the social sphere by promoting positivity in our interactions.
According to Frank Eliason in his article What it Means to be #PositivelySocial:
“Being #PositivelySocial does not mean you do not have opinions, because we all do. It is all about how you decide to express those beliefs to those around you.”
According to Eliason, the basic tenets of #positivelysocial are as follows.
- Respect Others
- Welcome Dialog
- Accentuate the Positive
- Take a Stand Against Bullies
- Deal in Truth & Facts
- Share Good Experiences
So, what can you do today to be positively social? It can be a random act of kindness or tolerance of someone whose beliefs you don’t share. It can even be something as simple as being mindful of your temper and the example you set for your children, as our friend C.C. Chapman illustrates in his post on Taking the High Road.
We’d love to know how you participate and hope that you will leave comments about your day and trackacks to posts about your own experiences. For Inspiration and encouragement, please be sure to visit the #PositivelySocial stream on Twitter!
