Bad news sells. We all know that there is a negativity bias in the media, with things like polarizing politics, terrorism, crime and war being the headlines, while positive, feel-good stories usually get a patronizingly off-the-cuff mention at the end.
Is this an agenda of the media? Or merely a reflection of our preferences for bad news? Perhaps it’s an evolutionary hangover, in which we react the strongest to things that we perceive to threaten our survival. Either way, there are plenty of good news stories out there to restore your faith in the human race, you just have to look a little harder for them.
Helpfully, Twitter user Jacob Atkins decided to compile a short list of some of the great things we accomplished this year, positive and genuinely interesting achievements that you would struggle to locate in a news update dominated by war, terror, Trump, Brexit, North Korea and all the other critically important yet divisive and controversial issues that we love to spend our days arguing about.
While I am by no means suggesting that we ignore these things, perhaps a little balance in our news reporting would not go amiss. So take some time in your day to seek out the good news in our lives, our species and our planet, as Jacob has done. Because despite the doom and gloom we are continually bombarded with, there is so much to be grateful for and to celebrate.
