What Catches Our Attention

I really don't like what catches our attention in the media. Well, it's not so much what catches it, more like how and why it's caught. For example, we lost Robin Williams this week (I can't find the words to describe him or how much he'll be missed); and as great as it is that people are trying to raise awareness of depression and it's effects, why does it take losing someone famous for us to give a crap? Someone in Massachusetts could commit suicide and people in Australia wouldn't care, and honestly, that happens all the time. Not those exact locations per se, but more than 25,000 people kill themselves a year in the US alone, and when was the last time you tweeted about it?
It's not just negative pieces in the news either, it happens to the positive stuff too. I constantly see those uplifting and inspiring videos on my facebook news feed saying "look at this proof animals can be friends with each other" or "this mom plays a heartfelt song for her dying daughter." That stuff is fantastic, it really is. But the way it's presented makes it seem so rare, especially when most of the media consists of the negative stories. I don't know if you watch Pirates of The Caribbean as much as I do, but Jack telling the truth is kind of like those positive stories:

I think we've been conditioned to expect the worst from people and from the world in general. The bad things are everywhere and the good ones are few, far between and "I need to post this right now to make someone's day better." Why do our days have to be crappy to start out with? Why try to make someone else's day better when it's a lot easier just to notice the good stuff you have? If we all realized how much good happens around us, a lot less of us would feel depressed. (I'm not saying that simply changing to a positive outlook can fix actual depression, but some people can be slight hypochondriacs.)

Try to have a happy outlook so you can better help people who seriously have depression. The worst thing you can do is one up them. Just let them know you're there, you'll listen and you care. They feel like their world is falling apart and there's nothing they can do to fix it so don't tell them "it's gonna be alright" because they just won't believe you. Sometimes the things you say without words are the loudest.