Florence Meade

What if I wish to express an interest in something I don’t necessarily LIKE? Curiosity may urge me to read an article in a doctor’s waiting room, but I may not like it. In social media, if I don’t ‘like’ things then the algorithm changes the content of my news feed so I don’t receive notice of things that might challenge my curiosity, disgust, or feelings anywhere on the spectrum of human emotions other than ‘like’.

Does everything really have to be POSITIVE to be of value? It seems such an obvious fallacy yet we are only recently beginning to see signs that the end is drawing near for positive mental attitude, positive visualisation (if you wish hard enough…), praise sandwiches etc. Can we really learn from positive feedback alone?  What is the value of critical analysis if it can only be positive?

I wish I could follow certain discussions on the web without having to indicate that I ‘like’ them and then face being judged as though I have necessarily consumed them in the spirit in which they were intended. My explorations are picked up by the sticky fingered data miners that inform my online identity with sometimes amusing results.