I use social media for a variety of reasons: work, to stay connected with family and friends, and to stay updated on my children’s activities or my own interests. Social media can be overwhelming when you look at it too much. It’s helped people, but it’s also distributed lies.
In this era in which anyone can be a digital publisher, I’ve been rethinking George Orwell’s famous quote: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want published; everything else is public relations.” 
Sure, I heard this quote thrown around when I was once a journalist. Sometimes it was used as a warning not to be too soft of a reporter, to avoid “fluff” pieces. But Orwell’s quote came long before the rise of the Internet, as he died in 1950.
Today, I can appreciate the human interest stories (furry friends, too), photos and videos that break up what sometimes feels like an endless feed of negativity. There are even new words Merriam-Webster is watching – doomscrolling and doomsurfing – that relate to this. These words “refer to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening or depressing.”
There are positive news stories now that are less about public relations and more about providing a balanced mental health. I’m not talking about the story promoting 20% off at your local store. I mean purposely following content creators such as Goodable, Dodo or Humans of New York, because it can uplift you during an inevitable doomscroll.
– Darcy Gray, WPC president
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