Saturday, 15 January 2011

The positives of negativity

There's been a lot said about the the way that comment sections on the internet often brings out the worst in people. Freed from social constraints and real human contact, people tend to give free reign to their baser emotions. They say nasty things that they would never say if they were looking another person in the face.

And you don't need to look far for evidence of this. If you want absolute proof then just head over to 4chan and spend 10 minutes browsing through some of the threads there. But just remember that it's not possible to 'unsee' stuff. You've been warned.

For more SFW but no less iron-clad evidence, look at just about any thread on Guardian CiF, supposedly the home of progressive values. Whilst there are undoubtedly many measured voices amongst the commenters, a personal insult or snide comment is never far away.

George Monbiot has written an interesting piece about 'astroturfing': the practice of organised groups -maybe in the pay of those in power who wish to protect their interests - orchestrating comments on the Internet to make a political or corporate point. No doubt this is a real concern. Never has it been truer than today that it's unwise to believe everything that you read. But it's not the point that I want to make...

At the risk of sounding negative myself, I want to talk about the counter-trend towards positivity. Because whilst the anonymity of the Internet has led some to lose compassion, it's open-ness has also led to a sense of fawning positivity amongst others.

It's a truism that 'It's not what you know, it's who you know'. But in the era of 'social networking' it's become easier than ever to make connections with 'strangers'. And the most obvious way to make connections is to be nice and complimentary to other people. To praise their work.

Looking at the use of Twitter in particular, this connecting seems to have turned into collecting for some as people work to attract followers and build their 'share of voice' as if 'It's not who you know, it's how many people you know'. And again here, being negative isn't likely to win you many friends. Or, in that case, influence.

Now, I don't mean to praise negativity for the sake of it. Too often, negativity can kill an idea before it has had time to really flower. And positivity can help bring the out the best of it.

But at the same time, too much positivity can also kill creativity by refusing to look for different angles or challenge the status quo. It can lead to a narrowing of debate - as in the famous 'echo chamber' that is too often the blogosphere.

When I was working in market research I sometimes got the same feeling when we were reporting findings back to clients about the way people were living. How were people's lifestyles changing? What were the big trends? What effect was technology having on their lives?

We tended to focus on the positive aspects of these changes because this was what it felt like the marketers we were speaking to wanted to hear. They wanted to tap into and accentuate the positive aspects of people's lives. They wanted to make them feel good. This was where the leverage was.

They didn't really want to hear about the negative.

But it strikes me now that in taking this perspective, you're going to miss the bigger picture. For me, the really inspiring voices of today are those that are challenging the status quo, that are going against the grain. And the really big innovations are going to come from those that address the negative aspects of our lives and not just keep on trying to accentuate the positives.

It's an attitude summed up perfectly by Honda in the words of an unusually inspiring piece of television advertising: "Hate something, change something, make something better".

Let's hope that really is their attitude and not just another piece of slick marketing...

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