This Summer, news broke that Facebook had purposefully manipulated newsfeeds, to see what effect a persons feed had on their mood. The study found that a persons posts were more likely to be positive or negative, based on their respectively positive or negative newsfeed. More scientific studies have also shown that suicide rates tend to spike after news of a suicide. Scientists/doctors call the phenomenon the suicide contagion. As an employee at the YWCA, representing victims of domestic violence (coupled with appointed work with DHR cases and often serving as a guardian ad litem for children in abusive situations), we were educated about the dangers of vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress and the burnout associated with the constant direct exposure to the trauma of others. Lately, Ive honestly been feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the sadness in the news and in my newsfeed. Between ISIS, the horrific crimes against children, Ferguson, the suicides and murder-suicides... Its like the whole world has gone crazy!!! Absolutely crazy. All the while, we (myself included) are spending way too much time on social media, soaking it all up... hashtagging and sharing it for someone else to be impacted by it. What if we spent more time with our friends and families (offline), what if we shared happy stories, not silly challenges, not meaningless and annoying games, not memes.. just good ol fashion stories of triumph and happiness. What if we made an effort to be more kind? What kind of impact could we have on our communities. We shouldnt be naive to the bad things that are happening in the world, but we shouldnt ignore our power to fill the darkness with light and love, either.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 02:19:38 +0000
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