Using the Ripple Effect to Our Advantage During the Pandemic
The current state of the world has given us all a chance to collectively catch our breath, to slow down and to see things in a different perspective. In the span of a weekend, I went from spending my mornings commuting and rushing from my HIIT workout to meetings to practicing yoga and meditating.
This collective pause has allowed me to reflect on how things affect me internally, and the ripple effect that has on my community. I’ve come to realize we cannot change what occurs in our vast universe, but we certainly can shape our outlook and adjust the lens in which we see the world. We can infuse our unique perspective into our physical and digital interactions on an ongoing basis.
While things are so seemingly out of our control, we have an opportunity to create waves of positivity and take control of the narrative.
Amidst the chaos, I came across research done in 2012 that reaffirmed the impact of the ripple effect in our digital world, specifically the social media realm. The study was conducted on 680,000 Facebook users to explore whether or not the updates in their news feeds have an affect on their moods. This research project stemmed from past laboratory experiments that already confirmed moods are contagious; it verified that by being around a grump, you are likely to turn into one, if only briefly. Would such contagions spread online? Using linguistic data science techniques, Facebook sorted positive and negative updates. They then systematically reduced the volume of downbeat postings in Group A’s newsfeeds, while reducing the upbeat postings in Group B’s. When they studied both groups’ subsequent posting behavior, they found evidence that collaborated the spread of positivity vs grumpiness from the past laboratory experiment. The curated news feeds had indeed impacted the moods of each group. Those who had fewer negative updates produced more positive posts. This pattern was replicated on the negative side, with Group B.¹
The phenomenon described above is known as the ripple effect. The ripple effect can be best described metaphorically, when you throw a stone into water and witness the ripples that are sent across the entire surface of the water, far beyond where the stone emerged. Analogously this happens in our everyday life with our thoughts, actions and words. What we do and how we carry out our day has the power to impact change far beyond our own well-being.
In our fast-paced society, we are always on the go. We collectively lose sight of how our actions, our smile or even our RBF (resting bitch face) can contribute to the ripple effect. How we carry out our day has a massive impact on the people around us.
But let’s think of the power of compounding. Our actions impact our circle which impacts our circle’s circle and so on, exponentially spreading positivity or negativity. Without even realizing, a simple smile can alter the course of how millions of people feel, subliminally.
Thanks to social distancing, the number of people physically around you may be less than normal, but you also have a network of people bored at home connected through social media. Mindlessly scrolling through Instagram can adversely lead one down a rabbit hole of negativity from the news with rising anxiety of the unknown, and the flat out panic that is a result of catastrophizing. You are not alone in these feelings.
We can use the ripple effect to our advantage to counteract this. We start by finding a simple way to create a single positive behavioral change.
The same can be said for our world on social media. The average individual has 338 Facebook friends², 150 Instagram Followers³,and 707⁴ Twitter followers. This is not including LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat and the plethora of other social platforms. Stop reading for a second and think about that. If right now, you post about positivity to your ~500 followers (taking into account the uniqueness of the followers for each platform), that is 500+ people feeling that positive energy from your post. Now imagine, 5 out of your 500 followers post your positive post to their family group chat, share it with their network which includes thousands of new individuals not in your network. Your words and impact begin to grow exponentially.
Visualize the nurse who is exhausted after her shift, the waiter who just lost his job, or the parent who deserves a medal trying to work from home while homeschooling 4 young kids. Imagine these people scrolling through social media looking for a distraction and seeing a flow of positive posts with words of encouragement, resilience, strength, community, peace, and compassion.
We can replace the tasteless memes, pointed fingers, negativity, and flat out bullshit with positivity. (Don’t get me wrong…I love a good meme)
Reflect on all the people you may reach in a day: your coworkers through simple email chains, the customer service call center at Prime Delivery, your mailman, your immediate friends and family, the group messages, the WhatsApp chats. Finally add in those who have been impacted with your social media presence, with exponential growth, the number is staggering. The impact can be positive or negative, it is up to you, the messenger, on what you are sending out to the universe.
Take it a step further beyond the ripples that are already in action, think of the small actions that could make a big impact beyond what you’re already doing. A 10 minute call to your grandparents, a text check-in with your younger cousin who you know suffers from anxiety, a quick snapchat to your old friend from school you found a picture of while spring cleaning. Now is the time. Tell them you love them, that everything will be okay. Give them a feeling of reassurance that humanity is good and we are in this together. Extend your ripple effect and extend your impact on the world.
As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This popular quote is more relevant than ever, given the exponential power we all have to send out a ripple of positivity.
So, as the government is encouraging you not to leave the house to stop the spread of the coronavirus, I am encouraging you to spread positivity into your day. Infuse it into your interactions and your social media feed. Let the positive vibes spread instead. We are all interconnected. Just like we can spread a disease, we can spread positivity, love and kindness. There has never been a better time.
#positiveripple
[1]: Cathy O’Neil. (September 6 2016). Weapons of Math Destruction
[2]: Kit Smith. (June 1 2019). 53 Incredible Facebook Statistics and Facts
[3]: Erin. (January 16 2020). Instagram Followers: How Many Does the Average Person Have?
[4]: Kit Smith. (January 2 2020). 60 Incredible and Interesting Twitter Stats and Statistics
*Shout out to the editing done by Kelsey Belford and Kayla Arnold. I appreciate you more than you know.
