The has-way-too-much-energy-to-be-human Gary Vaynerchuk has declared April 3rd to be “Good People Day“. A day to “write and talk abd blog and twitter and just flat out SING about people that are AWESOME and GOOD”. Personally, I think Gary’s idea has merit. Over the past few months I’ve found myself becoming worn down by the aggressively cynical and negative attitude that seems to infuse every corner of the internet these days. When did the internet turn into one perpetual argument for argument’s sake? When did “hey, that’s a cool idea!” turn into a default “blah, that’ll never work. You’re an idiot! Stoopid N00B!” It wasn’t always like this. Back in the day ™ it was about sharing knowledge and ideas and people had much more positive attitudes towards each other. Not anymore. What the hell happened?
I can’t say I’m without fault in this. I’ve contributed more than my fair share of negative comments over the last few years. Recently, however, I’ve started to notice my argumentative online persona spilling over into the real world. That’s not who I want to be. I didn’t realize how far down that path I had gone; it was a gradual change that creeped in like some sort of chronic illness. Something has to change and I’ve made a conscious effort over the past few weeks to be more positive. I don’t want to be know as an asshole, online or offline. I mean, does anyone?
So I’m glad that maybe I’m not the only one noticing this, and maybe some small but growing population of netizens can help change the tide and bring the net back from the caustic abyss it is quickly degrading into.
So, on that note, Happy (early) “Good People Day” 2008…
