The Downers

You know the ones- the Negative Nellies who are on your Facebook, Twitter or other Social Media tools who constantly post how horrible their lives are.  They are always having a bad day; the weather is horrible/the weather is nice but they can't be out in it; they stubbed their toes/their pain is worse than anyone else; they hate their job/ they hate being unemployed; they are bored/they have too much to do blah, blah, blah.

As you know if you have read this blog before- I am on a quest to live a POSITIVE life- and these folks do not help further that path.  The easy thing to do would be to simply "unfollow" them and on Twitter that is exactly what I do; but in my case- the folks that I am friends with on Facebook  are people that I truely care about and it's not as easy. 

My quandry is in how I handle them.  For the most part- I can ignore them.  I am pretty good at skipping over their depressing status updates and going on with my life.  There are times that I feel the need to remind them that despite their moaning and groaning, they have it pretty good.  A little "Pollyanna" post is the response of choice for those times.  The whole "FML" phase is one that makes me crazy. Having friends who are in the middle of the war in Afghanistan and friends who are REALLY in a bad place physically and/or emotionally and then seeing "I got a ticket on the way to work today- FML" or "No one wants to go to the party tomorrow- FML" makes me beyond snarky.  Those responses are generally sarcastic from me.  Then there are the days that I am already having a tough time with positivity or they have flooded my wall with their griping and it serves to set me off.  At that moment I just want to tell them to SHUT UP (or something a lot less nice) and then "delete" them but because I do care about them- I have to get up and walk away. 

I have thought about this a lot recently and I think I need to come up with a better course of action for handling these situations.  One thing I can do is to stop and take a moment to give thanks that I am not them.  I can count my blessings and be grateful that I am able to be positive even in the face of true adversity.  Beyond that- it may be time to re-evaluate whether or not I keep them in my sights.  I may have to have a conversation via email or messenger and just let them know how much it bothers me and that though I care about them, I have to block their feeds for my own mental health. 

I am open to any suggestions as to how you handle the "Downers" in your life and are able to not let it bother you.  All I know is that if I am to keep moving forward, I need to address this in one way or the other.