Ruizhi Lin - Week 17 - Negative Memories
Whenever I think about the past, negative memories have always seemed to surface faster than the positive, leading me to speak more negatively when conversing with others. Thus, I am unofficially known as the pessimist of my family as everyone else seems to be a lot more carefree. After searching on the internet on how common my tendency of negative thoughts is, I came to realize that there were a ton more people that had even worse experiences.
I read
that many studies show that humans are more likely to hold onto negative
experiences than positive ones. According to many psychologists, the act of
noticing the negative more than the positive was passed down for survival
purposes in terms of experience. They also claim that age makes a difference in
pessimism, finding that adults in their 20s and 30s tend to have this experience
the worst while older people build happier memories more easily. Another factor
that plays a role is how many times a memory is replayed and thus modified. As
memories are reviewed over and over, slight details are prone to change,
building confidence in how accurate one’s version of events took place;
however, as much as this allows one to retrieve and share the memory, this
process basically guarantees all long-term memories to be fallible.
High
School and later on is filled with challenges, and thus more horrid memories.
So its important to hang on for now with the knowledge that happier* times will
come soon as time flies by.
Apr 27, 2022
6:37 pm
Comments
I used to also be a pessimist, but now, I think I am more optimistic. I think it mainly began during quarantine, then stopped at around the ned of first semester, and started back again second semester. I try to see the better side of things, mainly because I'm happier when I'm optimistic, and sadder when I'm pessimistic. This isn't scientifically proven or anything, but from my observation, it is cooler to be pessimistic, which may be one of the reasons why people tend to be pessimistic. I think this sprouts from people's attempts to be humble, and they achieve this by putting themselves down. I remember when I was younger, I was pretty optimistic, but I noticed that it wasn't cool if I was optimistic, so I stopped.
Yeah I saw a similar study to the one that you are talking about but I am not sure if it's the same one. Anyways I think the reason why the brain is better at storing possible more negative thoughts is to notice that life mostly is about having happiness. That there is just so much less negativity and all those negativity can be used to farm for positivity. They are basically the farm house of more knowledge to remind the person itself to not make the same mistakes that caused the anxiety experienced previously. As for older people the brain thinks that their lifespan is almost over and as culture describes the older a person is ; the more knowledge they carry. So old people are releasing everything they carried throughout their lifetime and it is like a brain reset having a flashback grasping general lifetime highlights.
Negative memories seem to have more of an impact on me too. My dad is constantly reminding me of how I always think about the bad things that he has done, such as argue or yell, but not the good times when he has taken me on vacation or bought me good food. This leads me to believe that since negative memories hurt more, they leave a bigger impact on how we perceive and remember events that have happened throughout our lives. On the other hand, happier memories are nice but for me, they only last for a short time before they leave. Maybe practicing techniques to remember happier memories could help avoid negative thinking!
Sincerely,
Faith Tong
I also look at the negative aspects of life. I think this is a gen z problem because our generation either has high self-esteem or negative self-esteem. These are both extremes and what makes it sad is that people our age have no idea how to perceive things. High school is a fun/horrid time of a student's life because it can be scarring, but also the best time of your life. Towards the end of the school year or the beginning of college, we will wish to go back in time and face the anxiety of AP exams or finals, because they are all the memories we held on to.
Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
You know what they always say, "the grass is greener on the other side." I think it helps me to look forward to the future, even if nothing is set in stone. Since it is human nature to think more about the bad times rather than the good, you kind of just have to remind yourself that... it could be worse. Pessimism isn't always bad and optimism isn't always good either. It's more about how you apply these concepts to certain situations. Say you're super optimistic that you can pass a test without studying (also called overconfidence). Perhaps if you were a bit more pessimistic, you would be more worried about the results and study more. See, right? Concrete pessimistic and optimistic personalities are kinda wacky.
-Angel Susantin
I have quite a few "negative memories". Nevertheless, I never let them get me down. I try to think as positively as I can in my day-to-day life because I have found that it helps my overall well-being. I think that your blog helped me realize how good it is to think positively, and how happier times will always be ahead.