The Negative Man Gets More Views Than The Positive One
I’ve been working in this industry for over twenty years now, and I’ve seen a lot of things change. The work itself? That’s pretty much the same. But the way we talk about it, share it, connect over it… That’s different. Social media’s changed everything about how we communicate, and I gotta say, I’ve noticed something that just bugs the hell out of me.
The negative stuff gets all the attention.
I’m not talking a little more attention either. I’m talking ten times the views, ten times the comments, ten times the shares. When I post about a job that went sideways… equipment breaking down, a customer being difficult, or me making some bonehead mistake… people eat it up. My phone’s buzzing all day. But when I share something good? When I post about a project we nailed, or some advice that took me years to learn, or just a solid day where everything clicked? Crickets.
And I can’t help but wonder: when did we all become so hungry for disaster?
Look, I get it. There’s something about watching someone else struggle that makes us feel better about our own problems. We’re all human. When I posted about a job that had 13 change orders, 8 months past the original deadline, & somehow it’s always the glass guys’ fault for not jumping when the GC said they were ready for install NOW! Many people could relate to that. They’ve been there. They wanted to commiserate, share their own horror stories, maybe even feel a little relief that it wasn’t happening to them that day.
When something goes wrong, people want to comment, but somehow, when everything goes right, they won’t even like the post.
But guys… here’s what gets me: we’ve *all* had good days too. We’ve all had that moment when everything lines up perfectly, when you step back and look at your work and think, “Damn, I’m good at this.” We’ve all learned lessons the hard way that could save someone else time, money, or a major headache. So why don’t those stories travel the same way? The ones where everything went perfectly, and you’re proud to tell your followers that you can, in some instances, achieve perfection? Or at least close to it.
I think we’ve trained ourselves to scroll past the good stuff. It doesn’t grab us the same way. A post about me finishing a tough job ahead of schedule and under budget? That’s nice, but it doesn’t make you stop mid-scroll. A post about me accidentally drilling through a water pipe & our customer screaming that we’ve ruined their unique, impossible to find, cannot be duplicated, once in a lifetime imported marble? Now that’s entertainment.
And maybe that’s the problem right there… we’re treating real life like entertainment. We’re looking for drama, for conflict, for something to shake our heads at or argue about in the comments. Positivity doesn’t give us that hit. It’s too smooth, too simple. It doesn’t activate that part of our brain that wants to see what happens next. It tends to make people feel worse about themselves.
Maybe it’s because feeling happy for someone else gives a little part of the joy you have for yourself to the other person. Maybe a lot of people want to hold onto all of the joy they have for themselves. Too painful to support someone else’s happiness when you feel you lack it.
But man, I worry about what that’s doing to us. Twenty years ago, if you messed something up on a job, you’d tell maybe five people about it… your crew, your boss, maybe your buddy at the bar that night. Now you can tell five thousand people before lunchtime, or at break time while you snack on your leftover sandwich from yesterday & stale cheese puffs. Information spreads fast these days. And all that negative energy just multiplies and becomes this cloud we’re all walking around in day in and day out.
Don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying we should only share the highlight reel. That fake positivity stuff is just as bad, maybe worse, because at least the negative stuff is honest. I’m just saying there’s got to be a balance. And right now, the scales are tipped so far toward the negative that it’s affecting how we see our work, our lives, maybe even ourselves.
If depression wasn’t that bad of an issue 50 years ago, it certainly is today.
Always seeing the good things other people are doing – their vacations, their new cars, their attendance at every sports game & concert, local or not.
It’s exhausting always comparing your life to someone else’s.
I’ve started asking myself why I’m posting something before I hit share. Am I putting this out there because it’s genuinely useful or interesting? Or am I doing it because I know people will click on a disaster? Because if I’m honest, there’ve been times I’ve shared the bad stuff just because I knew it would get more attention. I’ve caught myself doing that a lot lately.
If I’m going to take the time to create content .. I wanna at least get views on said content.
Not many people realize how long it takes to keep social media running & the constant flow of content coming. It’s a full-time job. Adding it to your already full-time job is a challenge. However, if we’re going to bring eyes to the skilled trades industry… somebody’s gotta show this new generation what they’re in for.
The good & the bad.
We’ve got younger guys coming into the trades now who’ve grown up with all this social media stuff. And I wonder what message we’re sending them when every viral post is about someone’s failure, every popular video is about something going wrong. Are we teaching them that’s just how it is? That struggling and complaining gets you further than working hard and sharing what you’ve learned?
I don’t want it to be that way. I truly hope that’s not what the future looks like for the next generation or we’ll have a big problem on our hands.
Anyhow…I don’t have all the answers. But I know this: we’ve got a choice every time we pick up our phones. We can feed the negativity machine, or we can try to tip things back the other way. Maybe your positive post won’t get ten thousand views. Maybe it’ll only reach ten people. But if one of those people needed to hear something good that day, if one person learned something that makes their job easier, isn’t that worth more than going viral with your latest screw-up?
I’m going to keep sharing the good stuff, even if nobody’s watching. Because after twenty years in this business, I’ve learned that the work we do matters, the knowledge we pass on matters, and the attitude we bring to the job site every morning matters. Even if Instagram doesn’t think so.
Maybe some of you feel the same way. Or maybe I’m just old and yelling at clouds. Either way, I said what I needed to say.
