Monday’s Musing: Our Own Social Experiment

Modified and used 8/25/20

Philippians 4:8  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

This morning newscasters reported that people are up in arms about a psychological experiment Facebook conducted in 2012 on 700 Facebook members.  By selecting mostly positive newsfeed or mostly negative newsfeed they were able to determine how the slant of the news affected their subjects.  They discovered that those who received mostly negative posts would respond with negative posts of their own and vice versa for those who received mostly positive posts.  While I don’t approve of this group manipulating our newsfeed, I do agree with the findings.  It’s a no-brainer. 

If we surround ourselves with positive people we will be much happier than if we hang out with negative folk.  The members of the church at Philippi were stressed out like the other early churches trying to form a new religion among unbelievers and persecutors. Paul writes to them from his prison cell, encouraging them to stay positive as he is trying to stay positive.  This week let’s try to conduct our own social experiment.  Let’s concentrate on thinking positive, happy thoughts and see how it affects our mood and actions.

Joyful, joyful we adore Thee, O Lord.  Help us to carry that joy throughout our daily lives. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Happy Monday!
Paige