{"id":10868,"date":"2024-10-19T20:02:49","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T20:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/?p=10868"},"modified":"2024-10-25T18:14:22","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T18:14:22","slug":"capcanele-pozitivitatii-toxice-din-mediul-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/capcanele-pozitivitatii-toxice-din-mediul-online\/","title":{"rendered":"The Traps of Toxic Positivity in the Online Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article written by Teodora Vlad.<\/a><\/p>\n

A simple search for \"How to be happy\" leads us to a significant number of pages offering lists of practical advice. \u201cSmile more,\u201d \u201cpractice gratitude,\u201d \u201cmeditate\u201d might initially seem like valid techniques. However, can they truly be considered a recipe for success, as often claimed? Or are we facing yet another iteration, lacking scientific grounding, of the classic adage \u201cif you want to be happy, just be\u201d? This article invites you to explore the notion of toxic positivity that has permeated the online world.<\/p>\n

What is toxic positivity?<\/strong>
\nThe trend of toxic positivity is rooted in perpetuating a positive mentality in all life contexts while suppressing any negativity or stress-inducing thoughts (Upadhyay et al., 2022). Essentially, a person who follows this trend:
\n\u2013 denies their negative emotions or thoughts when they appear;
\n\u2013 avoids reflecting on events that cause them stress;
\n\u2013 creates an \u201cartificial\u201d happiness and doesn\u2019t allow themselves to experience any emotion outside a positive framework.<\/p>\n

Currently, toxic positivity seems to be gaining traction online, especially through social media. Various trends and hashtags (e.g., #positivevibesonly), promoted by influential figures, create idealized and unrealistic standards for a happy life. This process can increase individual pressure to build a so-called \u201cperfect life\u201d (Wyatt, n.d.). Thus, instead of experiencing the sought-after happiness, we may find ourselves drifting further from it.<\/p>\n

How Does Toxic Positivity Affect Us?<\/strong>
\nThe promotion of positive practices has both a light side and a dark side. If you're doing something you genuinely enjoy and feel real joy, then what\u2019s wrong with being positive?! If the positive emotions are authentic, fostering positivity can benefit one\u2019s well-being and mental health (Pluha\u0159ov\u00e1, n.d.). However, issues arise when there\u2019s pressure to maintain a lifestyle that isn\u2019t truly yours. In the long run, the trend of toxic positivity may intensify emotional distress, as the \u201chappiness obsession,\u201d as some authors call it, leaves no room for acknowledging or processing negative emotions (Wyatt, n.d.).<\/p>\n

How to Combat This Trend?<\/strong>
\nFighting against toxic positivity doesn\u2019t mean avoiding positive emotions. Instead, it\u2019s important to give sufficient space to all the emotions we experience. Don\u2019t stop looking for positive aspects in your experiences. Don\u2019t stop expressing gratitude for what happens in your life. However, remember that negative emotions are also emotions. Hiding them away in one of the most distant rooms of our minds doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ve dealt with them effectively or that we\u2019re truly thinking positively. Allow space for negative emotions, sit with them for a while, and try to understand what thoughts or situations triggered them. Restructure negative thoughts in a healthy way, without pressuring yourself to have a \u201cperfect life.\u201d After all, what exactly is perfection?<\/p>\n

What Should We Take Away from This Article?<\/strong>
\nThe belief that a positive attitude is the only way to solve our problems and that negative emotions have no place in our lives is a trap. Happiness doesn\u2019t arrive \u201con demand,\u201d nor is it the only valid state. All the other emotions we experience on the road to happiness have their own role and deserve to be acknowledged, analyzed, and managed. Even though the internet sometimes seems to forbid us from being sad, remember that negative emotions have their own purpose too!<\/p>\n

References<\/strong>
\nRecommended Resource: Folk, D., & Dunn, E. (2023). A systematic review of the strength of evidence for the most commonly recommended happiness strategies in mainstream media.\u00a0Nature Human Behaviour,\u00a07(10), 1697-1707. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41562-023-01651-4
\nPluha\u0159ov\u00e1, J., De Sousa, V., Str\u00f6msd\u00f6rfer, S., & Schraube, E. In Defence of \u201cToxic Positivity\u201d: Shedding Light On. Accesat la 18.10.2024: https:\/\/rucforsk.ruc.dk\/ws\/files\/96034349\/in_defense_of_toxic_positivity__shedding_light_on_a_misunderstood_phenomena.pdf
\nUpadhyay, I. S., Srivatsa, K. A., & Mamidi, R. (2022, July). Towards toxic positivity detection. In\u00a0Proceedings of the tenth international workshop on natural language processing for social media\u00a0(pp. 75-82). doi: 10.18653\/v1\/2022.socialnlp-1.7
\nWyatt, Z. (f.a.). The Dark Side of# PositiveVibes: Understanding Toxic Positivity in Modern Culture.\u00a0Psychiatry. Accesat la 18.10.2024: https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Zoe-Wyatt\/publication\/383871051_The_Dark_Side_of_PositiveVibes_Understanding_Toxic_Positivity_in_Modern_Culture\/links\/66ded25eb1606e24c21b2c67\/The-Dark-Side-of-PositiveVibes-Understanding-Toxic-Positivity-in-Modern-Culture.pdf<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Articol redactat de Teodora Vlad. O simpl\u0103 c\u0103utare a sintagmei ,,Cum s\u0103 fii fericit\u201d ne redirec\u021bioneaz\u0103 spre un num\u0103r semnificativ de pagini care ofer\u0103 liste cu sfaturi practice. \u201dZ\u00e2mbe\u0219te mai […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10868"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10883,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10868\/revisions\/10883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laboratorstiintecognitiveclinice.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}