On November 13, MSNBC.com featured a story titled “Teens Ambush Boehner” as the main story. My first thoughts were that he was viciously attacked by a huge group of teenagers while he was walking outside.
I clicked on the story, which featured something completely different than what I imagined. Two 13-year-old girls were at the same restaurant as Boehner.
They walked up to his table and peppered him with questions.
Like any ambushed person, he mumbled some responses and continued eating.
What actually happened differs from what the headline implies. Some girls asking a few questions is not what many would consider an ambush. The news seems to be getting increasingly more negative. However, despite what the media may promote, things are actually getting better.
Crime
Two men were shot at a convenient store. A kid was arrested at a middle school for bringing a gun, and a neigborhood has had more robberies.
While the news would have you believe that crime is increasing ten fold everyday, crime rates have significantly decreased in the past couple of decades.
Auto fatalities
The traffic report is rarely optimistic. There are usually stories like a deadly car crash on I-4 or a truck tipping over on the Turnpike that killed a family.
However, driving has significantly improved. Cars now have more safety features than ever, and there are fewer DUI arrests.
The rate of auto fatalities has been cut by more than one half from 1980 to 2012.
The environment
The news would lead you to think that the environment is on its deathbed. Urban sprawl is destroying Florida, our water will run out, and global warming will cause category five hurricanes and frequent flooding.
The environment has, in many ways, improved. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions decreased with a growing economy.
There are numerous statistics citing that urban cores are growing more than environment-destroying suburbs, and millennials want to drive less.
Per capita garbage and water consumption have decreased as well.
The economy
Despite the media-created image that the economy is always on the decline, the opposite is happening.
During the government “shutdown,” job growth didn’t decrease. In fact, it accelerated, and during this period four out of five government employees did their jobs as usual and received the same pay.
The unemployment rate has been steadily decreasing over the past three years. It isn’t great, but it is improving.
Why we see the trend
News companies use bad news as a way to make people pay attention. Viewership and subscriptions increase, thus these news companies make more money.
If everything is fine, it wouldn’t seem as urgent to watch the news.
In “Why we love bad news” (published by Psychology Today), expert Ray Williams explains why fear takes precedence over optimism.
“Many studies have shown that we care more about the threat of bad things than we do about the prospect of good things. Our negative brain tripwires are far more sensitive than our positive triggers. We tend to get more fearful than happy. And each time we experience fear we turn on our stress hormones,” he said.
This overdramatic and overly negative news causes a “boy-who-cried-wolf” effect.
Whenever there is a large shooting, no one seems to even notice anymore. While an event that serious isn’t exaggerated, it simply shows that people tune out things of repetitive nature.
Despite the negative and overdramatic news that bombards us everyday, let’s look at the positives.
We are seeing improvements everyday.
Keep in mind that negative sells better and that we as the consumer should not fall into the trap of pessimism.
