Contagion
from Just Add Light and Stir, October 2011:
Someone wrote elsewhere, about Just Add Light and Stir:
I really didn’t like Sandra’s blog, sure there is a lot of useful information, but the “cheerful” tone creeps me out!
A lot of useful information would be sufficient, I think, for a daily blog with over 800 subscribers. But I'm creeping someone out with a "'cheerful' tone"?! First, it's not "cheerful" in quotes, not allegedly cheerful. It actually *is* cheerful. 🙂
Cynicism is poison. It erodes relationships. It saps one's spirit and dissolves faith and hope. I will choose cheeriness over pissiness anytime I can manage to do it, and I hope most of those reading here are able to make that choice too, for the sake of themselves and their families. For their neighbors, for their dogs. For safety while operating motor vehicles and other machinery. For success at work, and joy while grocery shopping.
Negativity sucks. It sucks the possibility of a joyful life directly out of a person, and if it's not stopped, it will spread to others.
Smiles can spread, too, though. Kindness can be contagious. You choose a hundred times a day to smile or to frown, to breathe in joy or to suck in resentment.
Live responsibly, especially while you have children in your home.
SandraDodd.com/negativity
photo by Sandra Dodd, in the alley behind the house
The original complaint about my creepy "cheerful" tone was in a comment here: INFORMATION DEFENSIVENESS, November 2, 2011. (if it's gone, here's a backup.)
That's a comment by a stranger (on a nice blogpost by another stranger). I was told I was being discussed, and went to visit.
At the original Just Add Light post, there are some nice comments.
NOTE IN 2023:
The link to my book, above, is an old one. The current edition is linked from here: SandraDodd.com/bigbook
[quoting that CBS news article]:
"I don't think there's any other platform out there were we share as much. Twitter is more for spreading information. Facebook is were we share how we feel," Fowler said.
Fowler says the team wasn't sure the study would yield any results and added, "I think this research shows for the first time, that the online world is changing things. My hope is that this platform will spread positivity."
The study was published Wednesday in the online journal PLOS One. [Detecting Emotional Contagion in Massive Social Networks]
Thanks to Caren Knox for the original link
Rejecting a Pre-Packaged Life
(SandraDodd.com/joy)
Thoughts about Doing Better
Choices in Parenting, Unschooling and the rest of Life
