Chris, the founder of 'Ominous Positivity Memes' told Bored Panda that the project is something that he cares about deeply. "It has become my entire brand and online presence. While I didn't coin the term Ominous Positivity, as far as I can tell, I'm the only one running any socials dedicated to Ominous Positivity Memes," he said.
Ominous Positivity, as a phenomenon, originally started with user Spillybun's post on Tumblr: "You will be okay. You have no choice." Chris shared with us that the term, Ominous Positivity, instantly resonated with him and left a deep mark. "I recall seeing it on Tumblr many years ago. I kinda expected it to catch on, but I guess it never quite did. That original Tumblr post came across my Facebook feed again sometime in 2019 and I shared it with just the hashtag #ominouspositivity. That feeling of resonance stuck, so over a few months I shared a few more things with that hashtag and people really seemed to enjoy them."
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Realizing that there was an audience that resonated with these sorts of posts, Chris officially started the 'Ominous Positivity Memes' page on Facebook on July 29, 2019. "I had saved plenty of content over the months to get the ball rolling. I figured I'll just keep posting what I've got and what I enjoy and whatever comes of it cool. I was not expecting it to blow up as fast as it did. We hit 10k within a month and 100k in less than a year," he said that the project continues to grow. OPM spread to other major social media sites and the founder even started up an official merch store.
The founder of OPM revealed that most of the project's audience is made up of people from the US, mostly between 20 and 35 years of age. Bored Panda wanted to get Chris' opinion on why the memes are so popular. He believes it's due to a variety of reasons.
"Especially us Millennials were raised with the message that a positive attitude can overcome all. Think of the classic cat pulling itself up poster with the words, 'Hang in there!' Well, all of the positive thinking in the world didn't stop us from inheriting a ruined economy and planet from previous generations nor stop the near onslaught of 'once in a lifetime' tragedies. So as a whole we tend to be cynical now," he said.
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"Messages of, 'Hang in there!' and, 'You can do it!' are not met well because they sound like the fake things we were told through gritted teeth. We can't believe in being positive anymore because either it didn't work for us as a generation or more individually just remind of us the lies we were fed growing up. So the art and comedy, mostly through memes, has begun to reflect that cynicism." Chris explained.
"Posts threatening people to drink water and stay hydrated always do well because guaranteed my audience is overworked and dehydrated. But feel-good posts of, 'Drink some water please' and, 'Gotta stay hydrated out there!' don't work and are met with eye rolls and scoffs because like, yeah, we know. However, we CAN hear, peer to peer, the message of, 'You better drink some water to take care of your sentient meat bag, you little goblin' or, 'Stay hydrated cause you're not leaving this terrible planet before I do' because it reflects the reality of struggles we are already going through."
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Psychologist Lee, from the UK, explained to Bored Panda that toxic positivity means always trying to focus on the positive and how this causes negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions to be suppressed and ignored. This, as you can guess, is very unhealthy. "As human beings, we have the full range of emotions, from deepest despair to blazing joy for a reason, and neglecting to find healthy ways to express our negative feelings is damaging and can cause us to become unaware of our mental health," the expert told us.
"Forcing positivity can keep us doing things that are not serving us, stop us from seeing when we are being exploited, and have us ignoring warning signs, putting us in danger and becoming less self-aware. It can also prevent us from accepting that some things just aren’t great, and it’s that acceptance that often allows us to move through this period and see a brighter future," Lee shared exactly how toxic positivity can prevent us from growing, healing, adapting, and improving as people.
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"And toxic positivity can deny us being our true selves, forcing us to assume a 'good vibes only' identity, and stop us from asking for help or being vulnerable when we are struggling. We need to foster a level of authentic positivity and gratitude, to help us generate hope and optimism, and celebrate the good things that happen. But if we don’t let the negative energy inside of us have recognition and release, it will impact our self-esteem and confidence in the long run, and have us avoiding the reality of the life we lead," Lee said.
Meanwhile, Chris, the founder of OPM, definitely thinks that there can be such a thing as too much positivity, too. "Toxic positivity comes up a lot in my comments and I think most people misunderstand the concept. Toxic positivity is saying that you have to be positive no matter what. It's saying that you aren't allowed to recognize the negative or reflect on it. It's all love and, 'Good vibes only.'
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The founder of OPM believes that justice can't exist if we ignore the realities of life. "Something love is is fierce and harsh. So not only does Ominous Positivity cut the saccharine nature of some flowery language of positivity but it also says, 'Yeah things are kind of [bad] right now, but that won't stop me from being a force of love and good in this world so watch out!' It allows for the recognition of the bad and making the choice to not succumb to it anyway whereas toxic positivity says to ignore all the bad in the blind hope of things being better."
One of Chris' pet peeves is to see the people in the comments of a post like 'Things will get better. You have no choice' saying that it's allegedly an example of toxic positivity. They're missing the point, the founder told Bored Panda. "These posts on OPM are not saying, 'Ignore the bad, you just have to be positive,' they are saying, 'Things will actually get better whether you believe in that or not. The world doesn't revolve around you and doesn't care what you think. It's gonna keep on improving no matter what!' And there is some comfort in releasing the sense of personal responsibility that like, my own attitude determines how well things around me are or will become. That can be a lot of pressure that frankly doesn't need to be there."
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The ‘Ominous Positivity Memes’ project is a testament to the fact that social media has room for seemingly contradictory ideas (overwhelming aggression on the one hand, optimism and support on the other) that fit better than expected.
And, wow, does the internet love ominously positive memes. We know that numbers don’t mean everything. But we still can’t help but applaud the project for racking up nearly 700k followers on Facebook and another 82.7k on Instagram.
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