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Comment by colund | Hacker News Reader

What's up with depressing topics on HN?

I don't think this is unique to HN. Western news in general tends to cover negative stories more often than positive ones. Quite a few studies have been done trying to explain the effect; there's no bulletproof theory yet, but one theory is that people are more likely to read negative articles than positive articles and journalists are just catering to demand. http://hij.sagepub.com/content/19/3/360?etoc

I sometimes post positive stuff, both here and elsewhere. It tends to get little to no attention.

This is possibly in part because good news tends to not be a danger to your welfare, whereas bad news is something we need to pay attention to for purposes of self preservation. Similarly, you see endless arguing online in part because there is more to say if you disagree with someone then if you agree.

I largely stopped following mainstream news years ago because news = bad news.

I disagree that we need to pay attention to negative news. In fact I think this is a misinterpretation of people who use too much of their 'left' brain. I think there are much more important factors for who gets successful in relationships.

- Confidence and good self presentation - Caring about and listening to others - Not living an immature life limited to travelling and partying but being reliable and solid and 'future proof'

I disagree with the downvotes my comments received. I think depressing news are a threat to people's psychological well-being and should therefore not be encouraged.

It's like trying to get good at a musical instrument or sport via focusing all your energy on your what you're not good at. Not a good way to spend your energy. Try passion, hope, love and daring to make a leap...

My comment was about positive or negative stuff generally, not about relationships per se. I do focus on the positive. So far, my experience has been that gets less attention when I share it than something people can have a good fit or fight over.

Maybe I still have things to learn. Maybe I will eventually figure out how to share positives in a way that garners substantial attention. But, so far, my observations suggest that, even on HN, there is more attention given to "bad news" than to good.

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