Reminds me of this from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
> Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn't work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn't really any point in being there.
> The one emotion that outpaced anger in Berger’s study was awe, the feelings of wonder and excitement that come from encountering great beauty or knowledge, such as a news report of an important discovery in the fight against cancer.
I find this incredibly encouraging. I try to be mindful of what feelings I spread on social media. I've seen too many friends fall into the "perpetual rage" trap, where they grow addicted to news that makes them angry and keep seeking out angrier and angrier pundits and ultimately fall into obstinate-pouting and irrationality.
The sense of awe and wonder are what I try to spread the most of online, but it's difficult. Spreading outrage is easy. It doesn't take much thought and the memes fit into headlines. Awe and wonder require research and understanding. What's amazing about a scientific discovery doesn't fit into a headline. You have to read the whole story to get what's epic in the article.
If the cure for outrage is awe, then we have to figure out how to squeeze awe into 140 characters.
The same emotion you need to be most wary too. It's easy to get sucked into these Rage inducing news and waste precious time and energy over things that possibly have no relation to you and only make you feel worse. In words of pg, Life is too short to spend on such bullshit.
I'd highly recommend Jon Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" for more on this sort of thing. He discusses online lynch mobs and speaks to some of those at the receiving end of the internet's outrage.
