Good question, right? These are the kind of questions that I find me asking myself almost on a daily basis. I feel like being nice to someone is one of the first life lessons we learn as children, because if you’re nice to someone, there’s usually a good outcome. That person is either nice to you back or they give you something you want. But as we get older, being nice, it seems, almost becomes optional. Today, if I open up my Facebook app on my phone, I can guarantee the first 10 things I will see will be about someone bad-mouthing someone else, someone posting negative comments on a picture or post, an article about how there was another suicide because of bullying, shootings, you name it because it is there. And to be honest, I am just so sick of it. What ever happened to being kind to one another? Why do people always concentrate on the negatives about someone and not the positives? Why do people have to bully and put people down? Why do people find it more appealing to say something negative about someone instead of something nice? I feel like a lot of other people besides myself ask these same questions every day.

One of my favorite quotes is, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” How simple and powerful is that statement? And I think that there are a majority of people who are kind but naturally, we concentrate more on the negative aspects of stories and people — and I feel that is largely due to social media.

The world isn’t as bad as it seems, but if you open any kind of news outlet or social media app, you can see everything that went wrong in the world today. You see that Trump and Hillary are at it again, there was a bombing somewhere, someone was murdered, you name it. But what you don’t see are the good things that happened that day. You don’t see that a community came together and built a new shelter, you don’t see that somewhere a shelter adopted out their last animal, you don’t see the good things and I feel like if we saw more of the good things people wouldn’t be more inclined to say bad things. If everyone is saying bad things about this issue or person, then why can’t I? This is a mentality I feel like most people adopt when it comes to social media because you can say anything when you are hiding behind a screen. Sure you can say something horrible to someone or about something, but you aren’t saying it in person which makes it a million times easier to say. But just because you aren’t saying it to someone’s face doesn’t make it any less hurtful. Everyone is fighting their own battles that you can’t see and when you go online and start saying things about people that makes them feel a million times worse whether they did something or someone is doing it just to put them down. That is the problem with social media, although it can be useful for many reasons I feel that it hinders people’s ability to be kind or say something nice and that is a problem that needs solved.

But it isn’t just social media anymore, it’s just people in general being unkind. Now a day’s, I feel people are less likely to interact with random people in a kind manner. People won’t hold doors anymore, people don’t compliment others anymore, some people can’t even say “hello” to other people on the street anymore. These are little things that I feel that we can all do every day to make your community a little kinder. If you are out on the street and you like someone’s outfit, tell them! If you somehow end up making eye contact with someone, wave or say "hello!" Don’t just give them a dirty look, they haven’t done anything to you. Try not to yell at people while you’re driving, and if someone yells at you or beeps, just let it go. When someone does something nice for you, pay it forward and be nice to someone else. Eventually it will create a giant chain of people and lead to a kinder, easier-going kind of community. I am not calling for world peace here, I am just asking that more people start acknowledging others and be kinder and maybe we will start seeing more of those good things instead of all the bad. I am also not asking for people to be super nice to everyone 24/7 to the point where it is forced and fake. Everyone has bad days where they don’t want to talk to people or they are more irritable. But if everyone just starts doing one more act of kindness than they did the day before, it will make a giant impact on everyone else around them.

I feel like this is starting to turn though. More people today are acknowledging people and their opinions now more than ever. Groups of people are coming together to protect other groups and people are supporting others and it is just something so wonderful to see. I hope that all this change and kindness towards each other can keep growing into something that creates a giant impact on how the rest of us live our lives.