Over recent months I have experienced a proliferation of social media (mostly Facebook, but some Twitter and Pinterest) invitations to join groups that I might be interested in. When I open the link, I find groups with names such as ‘Gripes Page’, ‘Nosey Neighbor Page’, ‘Recall School Board’ etc… much less am I seeing groups nuanced to more positive themes, though I did see a ‘Make Kindness Contagious’ page and it is their image that I have posted above.
In the Mandt System chapter on Building Healthy Relationships with share the work of Albert Bandura and more recently Glen Latham looking at the nature of interactions, positive and negative. Our challenge to participants and to ourselves is to try and reverse the ratio of predominately negative interactions to predominantly positive interactions.
It stuck me that the realm of social media can be just as negatively biased. It seems like a daily event that we hear news stories of internet trolls or unkind critical posts made condemning or judging the behavior of others and such. So, my call out in this blog is to try and apply the same focus on creating a bias toward the positive in our in-person interaction as to our social media interactions. Whilst we may not agree with the view or opinion of others, we can still share in ways that are respectful and kind.
Simon Kemp – CEO
