In the Smithsonian Magazine this month there is an article under the category of Phenomenon. It has had me thinking all week.
The subject is emotions and the social media. Matthew Shaer talks about how quickly emotions travel on-line. He states that some researchers have concluded that joy moves faster than sadness or disgust, and rage is more fast and furious than joy.
Another researcher says anger drives people to action, and sadness and melancholy shut people down (deactivation).
The conclusion, though, was encouraging; and that is what has kept my mind running full speed. One emotion outpaced anger and that is awe. “…the feelings of wonder and excitement that come from encountering great beauty or knowledge”. Jonah Berger said, “Awe gets our hearts racing and our blood pumping. This increases our desire for emotional connection and drives us to share.”
Not to be too “punny”, but this, to me, is awesome!
I think applying this concept to every interaction, through the media and especially face to face with others could be one more giant step to contentment and serenity in our lives. Joy can many times make an angry person even angrier for various reasons, but it’s hard for anyone to not stop and pay attention to awesome – the starry sky on a black night, or the crashing of huge waves below a lighthouse, or a baby (of any species, except maybe slugs), or even the smell of homemade bread.
I think a list of awesome could be another Challenge.
He who mounts a wild elephant, goes where the wild elephant goes. Randolph Bourne
Seasoned 
It would be beneficial if we could figure out how to change the speed of anger to awe – reaction times online do seem not to pause for reflection sometimes. On a positive note, I can think of many “awes” I’ve enjoyed thanks to this phenominal blogging community.
Haha, I love the pun 😉
It’s really interesting how the different emotions travel at different speeds. And it makes me want to try and share as much of the awesome as I can in that case.