Kindness is my Clickbait
Written by: Anna Dravland & Sam Centerbar
Around the world, so many of us feel frustrated with the media on some level. Whether it’s social media, mainstream media, fake news, or otherwise.
I’ve been guilty of it. I’ve caught myself reading headline after headline of absurdity. Badness. Politics. Corrupt people. Evil people. You start commenting. “Why do you share this crap?” “Shame on you, news station!” “You need to stop reporting this garbage!”
But as the media station would point out-you're the one who clicked, commented and engaged. You did exactly what they wanted you to do. You gave them your click and in essence asked for more...
Every comment that you write boosts their post in the algorithms. Even when you’re angry and hate it, and telling them to stop.
Take your power back. We have control over the media. They report on what gets clicks. They report on what you read. At the end of the day, they tell the stories that are going to bring them money and attention. That makes us all responsible for the media. We choose what we click on and to who we give that precious algorithm to.
We need to make kindness our clickbait.
We need to give power to the doers, the world-changers, and the heroes.
Not as an occasional news segment, but as a habit. The media wants to be your clickbait so badly that they’ll do anything. If we change what we click on, they will have to change what they report on. They would spread goodness like they’ve never spread goodness before. If you just show them that’s what you want. Show them that goodness is what you’re giving your money and attention to. Don’t let them choose the clickbait. Click with purpose to give power to what you truly want to see thriving.
Friday, March 15, 2019, was the second annual Spread Goodness Day. I woke up excited about all of the incredible goodness projects we were about to explode into the world.
I went on Facebook to find I was tagged in a post by a friend who said that Spread Goodness Day could not be a good day.
He went into detail about a Swedish mosque that was shot up by a man who live-streamed it and killed 49 people. My friend wrote about the horrors in the world and how he found it hard to understand.
I waited a short time to decide what I was going to respond. Then I typed:
“No, you’re wrong. Today is a good day. It’s a very good day. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people are doing amazing things today for Spread Goodness Day. Billions of people worldwide are sobbing at the ugly actions of this one man.” One man did a horrible thing, and we gave him so much power.
His ugly action became the skunk in the room that made us believe that the the whole room stank. But it’s wasn’t the room. It was just ONE skunk.
I got to see and share thousands of incredible things that happened on that Spread Goodness Day. For hundreds of thousands of people, it was a very good day.
So let’s choose what we look at. Let’s choose what we share. Let’s give the click power to the good. We make criminals and murderers famous. And we have the power to stop. That’s not to say we should bury our heads in the sand and ignore the bad in the world. But let’s be intentional.
1. Stop and think before you click.
2. Don’t comment unless you want to see more of it.
3. Before you like/share, ask yourself why.
4. Before you share personal information/photos, ask yourself if you truly trust/know someone.
5. Before you click, does the content deserve your coveted click power?
In one day, we could change the media’s narrative. BAM. The power is literally in our hands. At our fingertips. Teach your family and friends how to use the internet responsibly. Remind them that there is power in what we click and share.