We all remember what our mothers and grandmothers taught us; “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” It’s an excellent concept that I think worked a lot in the past. I’m pretty sure that if more us followed this rule, there would be a lot of people who never spoke. Hell, depending on my mood I’m sure there be a few weeks here or there that it would appear that I was mute. But, certainly silence is better than some of the nasty, hateful things that are being spewed at people today. What makes it worse is that now with social media you can be as nasty and hateful as you want from a phone or computer without having to feel any of the guilt that comes from seeing the other person’s wounded face.
With all of the different news stories in the last few years where kids are cyber bullying one another, it warmed my heart when I read a story about an Iowa City high school student and his friends that decided to counter cyber bullying in their own way. After reading a story on cyber bullying, Jeremiah Anthony created a Twitter feed where he and his friends can send complimentary tweets to fellow students and teachers at their high school. If you haven’t heard or read about this story I urge you to click below and read about it. Some of the tweets sent are truly inspiring.
Teen Uses Tweets To Compliment His Classmates
After reading this story I started wondering what would happen if everyone started complimenting everyone on a daily basis. What would happen if instead of always looking for something bad to say about another person or making fun of another person we gave a compliment instead? What if everyone tried to build each other up rather than break each other down? I think it would be really easy to be nice to people that we like. But, what about people that we don’t necessarily get along with? What if we tried to give them a compliment rather than concentrate on how much they may work your last nerve? I’ll be the first to admit that it would be hard for me at first. I mean as I started writing this I was in the airport and in the time it took me to get through security, walk through the terminal and find my gate I probably gave about 6 or 7 nasty looks and said several choice curse words under my breath. Seriously, if you’re not going to walk on the moving walkways don’t stand in the middle and make it difficult for the rest of to get around. I mean, how lazy do you have to be??? But, I digress.
So, I’ve decided to challenge myself. I am going to try and go 7 days without saying something negative about another person. Instead I’m going to say nice things and compliment others. For every negative thought and/or comment about another person I have or say I will pick a random person on Facebook or Twitter and say something nice about them. We’ll call this a social experiment on human kindness. But, nothing makes an experiment work better than volunteers. Would anyone else like to take this challenge with me? If so, please come back and let me know how it worked out and how you felt afterwards. It will interesting to see what comes of this. Hmm…who says adults can’t learn from kids? Thanks Jeremiah and @WestHighBros .
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