This is one thing I noticed after coming here from reddit- I realized I was addicted to how angry reddit made me feel. It’s another kind of dopamine.
I feel like people are nicer here.
To your point, I’ve come to realize that just feeling angry all the time doesn’t really accomplish anything. It’s better to do some things to take action. So I’ve taken to helping the angry people find something helpful to do rather than stoking each other’s anger all the time. I think there’s an outrage addiction element at play here, as odd as that may sound.
I don’t really believe there should be explicit bans on politics in any particular space, personally, but I do think we as individuals can do better to look after each other’s mental health and contribute productive things to whatever conversational space we find ourselves in.
I think you’re 100% right. This was something I previously noticed while working in the media sector, not with anger, but stress. Some people would seem to purposely stress themselves up about very minor incidents, and I think there was a subconscious craving for an adrenaline upper and dopamine downer guiding their actions. It’s definitely a good general practice to talk down people who get themselves worked up, but I’ve met plenty who just won’t allow that. I’ve also spent enough time of my life trying to get people to calm down, now I just want to exchange clever wit with strangers and appreciate silly things.
This is one thing I noticed after coming here from reddit- I realized I was addicted to how angry reddit made me feel. It’s another kind of dopamine.
I feel like people are nicer here.
To your point, I’ve come to realize that just feeling angry all the time doesn’t really accomplish anything. It’s better to do some things to take action. So I’ve taken to helping the angry people find something helpful to do rather than stoking each other’s anger all the time. I think there’s an outrage addiction element at play here, as odd as that may sound.
I don’t really believe there should be explicit bans on politics in any particular space, personally, but I do think we as individuals can do better to look after each other’s mental health and contribute productive things to whatever conversational space we find ourselves in.
I think you’re 100% right. This was something I previously noticed while working in the media sector, not with anger, but stress. Some people would seem to purposely stress themselves up about very minor incidents, and I think there was a subconscious craving for an adrenaline upper and dopamine downer guiding their actions. It’s definitely a good general practice to talk down people who get themselves worked up, but I’ve met plenty who just won’t allow that. I’ve also spent enough time of my life trying to get people to calm down, now I just want to exchange clever wit with strangers and appreciate silly things.