Enough with the End-of-the-World Medium Stories

Stop Peddling Fear, It’s a Terrible Motivator

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I get it. These stories tend to do very well. As Facebook’s shown, enragement = engagement.

And most of these stories are well-written. They’re engaging articles that evoke powerful emotions and get more than their share of claps. You can easily build a career peddling outrage and depression. It’s only a matter of time before the Hollis’s pivot there from toxic positivity.

So yeah, I get it. But none of these articles are helpful. Just like Zuckerberg manufacturing rage for the sake of profit isn’t helpful. He can call the company whatever he wants, until they stop monetizing dissension while preaching connection, his legacy will continue on its current shameful path.

Maybe it’s just my feed, but it seems as though Medium’s now inundated with stories of how the world’s ending. I agree they’re a nice break from the seemingly contradictory “How I got rich writing on Medium,” and “Why everyone should leave Medium,” themes, but again, it’s not helping.

The world isn’t getting worse. Despite what many enragement authors would like us to believe, the world continues to improve. Across almost all meaningful measures, the trends show a long arc to the positive. Infant mortality? Improving. Childhood vaccination rates? Increasing. Worldwide literacy? Improving. Ozone depletion substances? Decreasing. Undernourished people around the world? Decreasing. Cancer survival rates? Increasing. Deaths from natural disasters and war? Decreasing. Scientific research and publication? Increasing.

My grandfather was right when he (often) said that things today aren’t like they used to be. It’s just not the complaint he tried to make it. By almost any objective measure, the world is on an improving trend.

I admit, when the degenerate in the plane seat next to you tries to start a “Let’s Go Brandon” chant, it can be hard to have faith in the future of humanity. Spend any time watching Fox News and you become skeptical that evolution does actually move us forward. Yet for all the media attention that these cases receive, it’s important to remember that they’re the minority. A vocal, annoying, and committed-to-their-own-ignorance minority to be sure, but a minority all the…