2008 The Year of the Meltdown?

A scant two weeks into the New Year and the keyword in headlines seems to be meltdown. Hillary Clinton, Miley Cyrus and Paula Abdul have all reportedly had one, and poor Britney has had several. These personal meltdowns are all in addition to the Capital One, subprime mortgage and global meltdown. What’s going on?

Has the year of the DUI given away to meltdowns? Will we now have teary eyed public confessions followed by stints in rehab for meltdowns? Well, count me out. I’m happy and make no apologies for it. Not only am I happy, I’m downright giddy. Take that you negative naysayers!

It’s a brand new year with brand new opportunities. In spite of the writers strike, the wobbly US economy and the continuing mortgage crisis, I’m optimistic.

Tales of meltdowns, break ups and disasters are the normal ups and downs of life. The headlines spouting them are not a trend in meltdowns but a trend in our insatiable demand for negative news.

It seems we North Americans enjoy a good train wreck. We want to look away, we want to bypass those headlines but we just can’t seem to avert our eyes. So we keep getting more of the same.

Business owners have even resorted to courting controversy to capture attention. Can you blame them? It seems the only way to get attention these days is to cash in on the controversial. Negativity has become the new “sex sells.”

I don’t know about you but I’d rather remain upbeat and positive. I want to attract new clients by being, well nice. I probably surf hundreds of blogs each week. There is a great deal of quality content out there. There is a also a dark underbelly. I’ve been to blogs that have more traffic than a Southern California freeway during rush hour, but I cringe when I read the comments.

Readers are not only nasty to the blog author but nasty to others commenting. Many other blogs have managed to really develop a nice community. These blogs have great content and great readers who are kind and supportive. I’ll take that any day even if it means a few less traffic hits.