Being Negative About Negativity

 

I have noticed a growing trend in the Ravelry group in which I participate that is making me sad. It is becoming a place for mostly negative and feel-sorry-for-myself postings. I don’t think these posters have changed it’s just that the normal postings are happening less. So instead of there being plenty of normal/positive posts with a few negative ones now there are mostly negative posts and it is a continuing downward spiral because people respond to the downer post and so on. It makes the group not such a fun place to interact anymore. In fact someone even made a comment back in October about the content not being what they enjoy and I agreed and unfortunately it hasn’t got better.

But as this is my blog and my own thoughts and work, I can say what I want here without making direct comments on Ravelry and making the situation worse.

Here are my thoughts for you posters.

Does dumping your feelings achieve anything? Would you get the same result if you wrote it out and burnt it. Or would you get the result you want if you actually talked to your spouse/children.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself/fishing for compliments because someone else is not reacting in exactly the way you want them to react especially over handmade gifts.

You don’t need to be the school ma’am. I find this an interesting phenomenon. There always has to be someone responding to posts with unsolicited and usually obvious advice and if this person stops posting then someone else miraculously steps up to take over the role. Here I would like to point out that we are all adults and the role is not needed and often adds to the negativity.

If you recognize yourself as one or more of these posters then step back and think before you post and maybe post something different to bring the group up.

And before you all pile on me, I have been guilty in the past of posting negatively and unsolicited advice but have stopped because it does nothing to add to the conversation.