Twitter: the Internet’s Happy Place?

My friend Lori (@lj3000) is notorious for telling people, sometimes strangers, to find their happy place, and it is from her that I learned to just be positive.  Not being a naturally happy, positive, or optimistic person, it was a skill I had to learn; since acquring this new skill, I’ve noticed the negativity in the world even more.  But one place that negativity certainly doesn’t fly is on Twitter.

I noticed the people with the most conversations and followers were those with positive and motivational attitudes, like @BeMeaningful and @Iconic88.  But why does the twitterverse seem so much more positive than the real world?

Positivity works well on Twitter because it is like a cocktail party: you talk to people, but you don’t necessarily know any of these people intimately.  It’s like a public forum of first impressions and most people don’t listen to a Debbie Downer and come back for more.

Being a true believer in balance in life, I see negativity as a necessary part of life, but because your tweeps aren’t your family, your best friend, or your significant other, we tend to keep our deeper, darker dilemnas out of the twitterverse for the most part.  Sometimes it makes for a nice change!

Twitter may be proof that everyone wants to be positive and wants to be surrounded by optimism.

So why can’t we keep that positivity in real life?  Well, 1) because life is not easy, but also, 2) because it takes effort to kick yourself out of a negative rut, and it’s easier to feign positivity online.

Actually, I’ve used Twitter to pick myself up out of a mood because just the act of pretending to be sans-negativity makes me start to believe it.  It’s pretty cool because it works and costs a whole lot less than a therapist!

I guess this is why I enjoy spending time on Twitter.  A lot of people don’t understand why I tweet, but when those I tweet with are so friendly, optimistic, and full of motivation, who wouldn’t want to?  Imagine if the whole world did #FollowFridays in real life.  Yea, it’d be pretty awesome.  When it feels like the world is trying to kick my ass (or at least give me a killer wedgie), Twitter may be just a website, but it helps me find my happy place and that’s more than enough for me!