Mayaot na tuig an 2020. A lot of people mentioned this. One can hear comments on the different experiences we encountered this year including the pandemic. Who would have thought that we will experience a global threat on our health during our lifetime? And human as we are, we find something to blame. We need a scapegoat. And for that, we have no choice but blame the year 2020.
Our ancestors might disagree that 2020 is the worst year on record. Sure, frightening things are happening, but many of those things happened in the past, too, including the 1918 flu pandemic, during which 50 million people died. Plus, the belief that civilization is on the decline is a tradition as old as civilization itself. Even Ancient Athenians complained in the fifth century B.C. that their democracy wasn’t what it used to be. These days, we call that belief “declinism,” or “decline bias” (Renner, 2020).
Rob Picheta of CNN said: Even before Covid-19 existed, humans had an unmistakable and scientifically pinpointed tendency to believe the world is poorer, angrier and more unsettled than it really is; an unconscious desire to hold onto negative stereotypes and ignore the scale of progress unfolding right in front of us.
It's a habit picked up in
childhood and reinforced by media coverage and our own psychological
peculiarities, many experts believe. Put simply, we think the world is a bad
place that's getting worse - a sense that undoubtedly grew in the last 12
months.
Declinism is the tendency to see the past in an overly positive light and to view the present or future in an overly negative light, leading us to believe that things are worse than they used to be. Declinism is often a feeling harbored about the overall state of a country, society, or institution, with the view that it is in decline or getting worse.
Looking closely, this might be one of the downsides of the information technology. Too much information allow us to compare and marvel the past (where we seldom saw what was happening because the internet was still unheard of) as better and of “good quality”.
The decisionlab.com said, the 24-hour news cycle that bombards us with negative and violent images contribute to declinism and end up confirming our existing beliefs that the world is getting worse. News stations, which have to compete with one another, capitalize on confirmation bias. They know that if they continue to present viewers with shocking and disturbing stories, viewers will continue coming back for more.
Then, our culture dictates us to rely on numerology. It is any belief in mystical relationship between numbers and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value of the letters in words, names, and ideas. It is more often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology and other divine arts.
The Chinese also tags a year with a certain animal and it has a certain astrological connotation. 2020 is the Year of the Rat according to Chinese zodiac. This is a Year of Metal Rat, starting from the 2020 Chinese New Year on Jan. 25 and lasting to 2021 Lunar New Year’s Eve on Feb. 11. Rat is the first in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The Years of the Rat include 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032...
When 2020 arrived, events came to people all over the world presented through their smart devices and even in the social media sites. These can be considered as stressors. The Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory lists 43 life events and assigns a point value to each event. That point value corresponds to the amount of life change caused by the event.
It is important to note that on this scale, according to Johnson (2020), there are both positive and negative events. This means that change, even a positive change, requires adjustment and therefore is a stressor. Our bodies respond to all stressors in the same way—including hormonal responses that increase blood pressure and promote weight gain. As changes add up, so does our stress load.
An example that many people can relate to right now is “work from home.” Working from home is accompanied by many changes—some good and some bad. For example, people may find that they no longer have a long commute to work, which is a positive change. However, they may also find that the physical environment is harder to work in.
Then, the learners started doing their lessons in a remote manner. This drastic change can cause stress both to the adaptive population and those with other learning preferences. This situation is another factor which made people complain. And these happened in 2020.
Kendra Cherry (2017) said: “Positive
thinking actually means approaching life’s challenges with a positive outlook.
It does not necessarily mean avoiding or ignoring the bad things; instead, it
involves making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to see the
best in other people, and viewing yourself and your abilities in a positive
light.”
It’s about increasing our control over our own attitude in the face of whatever comes along the way. We cannot control things and events happening around us, and we cannot always control the thoughts that pop into our heads, but we can choose how we handle them.
Another year is coming. There are things within our grasp but there are those that we can’t even comprehend. All we can do is adapt and become works in progress as we see the new ecology a challenging one for our growth and the chance to become better versions of ourselves.
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