I must confess, I’m a bit of a social media buff but it’s been a while since I have mindlessly scrolled through content, barely registering a thing. The effects of toxic positivity have affected me, one way or another.
Toxic positivity is the dysfunctional approach to emotions. It’s the dismissal of negative emotions, instead addressing them with false reassurance rather than genuine empathy.
Social media is one area where it plays a major role, as people are more inclined to curate the best parts of their lives online in order to get engagement on aesthetic worthy quotes or inspiring speeches and videos, rather than showing the more mundane aspects of themselves.
One of my first experiences of this was during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic where I felt justified negative emotions, but on social media, people were more inclined to posting motivational quotes, rather than facing the reality of it.
There’s this immense pressure to be productive when most people like me are tired and trying to survive day-by-day, only to come on social media and see words like, ‘just be positive’ or ‘a positive outlook changes everything’.