Pranam
Article in TOI Toxic on positivism dated 27 6/21 KR IRS
Chennai: Browsing through the positive posts put up on social media did
help Abhinav Swaminathan during the pandemic. But, when he lost his
grandmother recently to Covid-19, the same posts became jarring. "The
algorithm is set based on my activity so ‘positive’ posts keep cropping up
on my timeline. But it gets annoying when you see a grim news item followed
by three or four influencers talking about just spreading ‘positive vibes’.
I had to unfollow them to reset my algorithm," says the 29-year-old IT
professional from Madipakkam. "It is good to be positive, but sometimes
these posts on positivity make me feel confused and my emotions seem
invalid."
During the pandemic, there has been great stress on the need to stay
positive and spread happy vibes. On social media, influencers and life
coaches with no background in the psychological sciences continue spreading
‘positivity’. But while staying upbeat, expressing gratitude and having a
sunny outlook to life is good, the unrelenting stress on having to plaster
a smile on your face and be constantly cheerful even while dealing with the
grim reality is leading to a culture of toxic positivity on the internet,
one that’s taking a toll on the mental health of many people. Divija
Bhasin, a Delhi-based counselling psychologist and social media influencer,
has been making Instagram reels and videos for more than a year. With a
double master’s in psychology, Bhasin makes content on mental well-being.
Her series ‘Psychologist’s Review of Reels’ calls out content creators who
spread fake information on mental health issues such as
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression. "There is too much
wrong information on mental wellness. Most of them focus on smiling every
day and being happy as cures to serious mental health issues. While they
could be helpful, they are not going to cure anything," says the 24-year
old, who uses movies and other pop culture content to spread awareness
about the importance of therapy during Covid-19. Packaging facts in an
interesting manner without being preachy is key, she says. "This is
important when it comes to spotting the difference between content that is
positive and one that promotes toxic positivity," says Bhasin. For, toxic
positivity ignores the realities, such as trauma. "What is the positive
side to trauma? We need to first accept our pain and negative emotions to
heal," she says. Even people’s bios on social media profiles that say
"spreading positive vibes" and "hustle hard, spread only positivity" can be
toxic in nature. "We should be realistic rather than positive in times such
as this," she says.
Influencers, though well-intentioned, can cause more damage, especially
since they are not trained psychiatrists or psychologists, says Bhasin. "I
have seen one who confuses being organized with obsessive compulsive
disorder, and another who provides "cures" for depression," she says. While
Bhasin believes mental health content should be created only by mental
health professionals, Anna Nagar-based consultant psychiatrist Dr Vikas
Prabhav says life coaches and influencers form a crucial part of the mental
health system. He says there is a thin line between positive and toxic
positive content. "If you feel guilty of experiencing negative emotions as
everyone around you is telling you to be positive, it can impair your daily
functioning," he says. In a period of collective trauma, one must come to
terms with the inevitability of pain. "Using positivity to distract from
pain can stop healing. If motivational messages on positivity make you feel
guilty or not positive enough, just block or unfollow it," says Dr Prabhav.
Celebrity and social media influencer who promotes positivity by mentioning
the importance of seeking help and taking breaks on social media is
Gabriella Natalie Charlton. The 21- year-old, who has been vocal about
mental wellness, does not have a background in psychology. However, the
reality-show star who recently contracted Covid-19, speaks on seeking
professional help and encourages her 1 million followers to fully
experience negative emotions and pain. "Putting out messages on positivity
can be tricky as I have so many young followers who can be easily
influenced. I cannot force someone to overlook the difficulties they might
be going through, that’s when my content would become toxic," she says.
However, some people find following the right influencers online
helpful at a time when they are forced to be in isolation. "Consumers also
play a huge role in understanding what content is toxic. While we cannot
control larger things like the pandemic, we can control what we consume
online," says Devanandsha D, a 30-year-old consultant.
On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 at 11:09, Rajaram Krishnamurthy <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Pranam
> Can there be toxicity to positivism?. Please read to day TOI KR IRS 27621
>
> On Sun, 27 Jun 2021 at 10:49, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Mar**Positivism*
>>
>> *Positivism is the capacity to recognise the tiny particles of success
>> that happen every day and adding to them by tinier particles. Negativism is
>> expecting the entire success to happen instantly. Actually things happening
>> instantly when one wishes for them will create terrible boredom as one need
>> not live at all. Expecting instant result is actually, the basic cowardice
>> to attempt.*
>>
>> *Secondly when there is no opposition at all and if things happen very
>> smoothly, one is making oneself very vulnerable to terrible shocks, when
>> things turn sore. Familiarity with failures is essential to fight failures.*
>>
>> *But most important of all positivism needs a noble and positive
>> objective. Nazism, Talibanism, Misogynism, Egoism...can never create
>> positivism. The test of positivism is to examine whether there is Altruism,
>> the urge to help and improve some other—human, animal, environment,
>> knowledge...*
>>
>> *When one believes in the basic nobility of the objective, which then
>> becomes a mission, then it shall become a totally non negotiable and
>> entrenched value, part of one’s physical anatomy. Strangely every noble
>> mission encounters oppositions, mainly from the human oxymorons (those that
>> appear good and helping but actually sabotage) and also events. But
>> negativism is the flower of cowardice. A coward to escape from his own
>> cowardice often takes to denigrations, discounting...out of personal
>> tension. In fact he is spreading his personal despair into a social
>> phenomenon. Destructive criticism is a clear symptom of basic
>> cowardize.After all courage does not mean frenzied killing or even frenzied
>> facing. It is the capacity to control self continuously, by being focussed
>> on the objectives and propelled to purposeful action because of belief.*
>>
>>
>>
>> *YM*
>>
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