The influence of information on a person and its consequences. Negative information in mass media People give me a lot of negative information

The average person spends approximately 6 hours a day watching television, i.e. 42 hours a week and 168 hours a month. This means that about 7 days a month, a person absorbs negative and harmful information. Television every day shows in detail various "graveyard" news, mourning events, disasters, murders, robberies, accidents, crying, forgotten unfortunate old and disabled people, victims of robbers and scammers, their weeping relatives. The spectacle of death, aggression, injustice is regularly introduced into almost every home, every family.

And if we add radio and the media here, then the consciousness is littered with even more negative, unnecessary information and advertising. Newspapers and magazines are full of reports that are written by journalists who are completely unaware of what they write about, they the main task get your attention in order to sell even more newspapers and magazines to increase your rankings. They publish “sensational news”, which are not confirmed later, but which you are already interested in, then a refutation follows, you again wonder how you need to read what they will say in their defense. You think, well, the journalists have “fucked up”, but, in fact, they just didn’t “fuck up”. They did their job, poured dirt on who they needed, attracted as many readers as possible. Some media often reach the point of informational sadism, when some journalists almost enthusiastically describe in detail the abuse of the victim by the criminals, her suffering and death.

Newspapermen, journalists, television people and advertising specialists adhere to Freud's teachings that the spectacle of violence and death most arouses the attention and interest of a person, as it satisfies the subconscious complex of Thanatos (Thanatos is the personification of death. Has an iron heart and is hated by the gods. In the subconscious human there are destructive complexes of Thanatos and Eros associated with the desire for violence and sex). If you put pressure on these complexes, psychological protection is removed, a person easily perceives any information.

And how many distortions in the direction of excessive naturalism and the injection of tragedy distinguished the Russian media, especially television, in describing various disasters, hostage-taking and the consequences of an assault, with the death of many people. Such information makes one shudder, and millions of people experience stress.

Most people spend the whole day gossiping and retelling to each other the information that they have learned from rumors or from the media, thereby charging their minds and yours even more with negativity.

But not only the media turn you off the road on the path to your self-improvement, success and prosperity. Often this is done by people who surround you: friends and family. Your relatives, your best friends, despite the fact that you love them very much, can unconsciously become your worst enemies simply by remaining yourself. For example, telling you about how bad the economy is today, about a car accident, with many casualties, about a train that went off the rails, about someone's health problems, about various viruses and infections, constantly reminding you that you can to catch a cold and get sick, because the street is damp and the flu is raging (thus sharpening your attention, on a subconscious level, to the disease) and about who is cheating on whom.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Many, when talking with their friends and relatives about health, as a rule, talk not about health promotion, but about diseases and their treatment. One can enthusiastically talk about how he is messing with his sores, the other talks no less colorfully about his health problems. Participants in such communication actively radiate the energy of diseases. This energy is as contagious as disease-causing microbes.

Make sure these people don't undermine your life philosophy.

Our task is to be as far as possible from the epicenter of negative information. This means that you do not need to let in negative information about illnesses, victims, catastrophes and various disasters, do not be interested in this, do not worry, do not discuss, in general, pass it on deaf ears.

Don't walk away from

information, and not let it in - ignore it.

Do not think that by protecting yourself from the outside world with a stone wall, you will protect yourself from unwanted information. This is an illusion. A person who tries to deliberately isolate himself from the world is in constant tension.

If you do not want to have something, you just need not to think about it, pass by indifferently, and this unnecessary will disappear from your life. Throwing out of life means not avoiding, but ignoring. To avoid means to allow into your life, but actively try to get rid of it. To ignore means not to react in any way, and, therefore, not to have.

Imagine that you, waking up every morning, listen to a radio station you hate on the radio called “The World that Surrounds Me”. No need to throw the radio out the window or smash it against the wall, just switch it to another frequency!

Sunday morning you turn on the TV (or radio) in the hope of being distracted from pressing matters, and immediately a stream of unpleasant, and most often stressful information falls upon you. You make yourself coffee and call your friend to chat and relax, and in response she talks about her problems and complains for thirty minutes in a row about life, her husband, children, idiot boss. You hang up the phone and realize that somehow you don’t feel well. And the day outside the window is gloomy, and the children are somehow imperfect, and the husband hasn’t spoiled something with gifts for a long time ... The day off began so well, and there were plans, and I slept, and the sun shone so invitingly. What happened?

We often underestimate We simply neglect the power of negative information and the strategy of protection against it. But negative information has a destructive effect on our emotional state, already weakened by problems and everyday difficulties. Our life, in the end, takes place against the background of constant stress, against which both our psyche and the whole organism protest. Experts do not even recommend taking tests and other medical studies in a bad mood. For example, hemoglobin levels rise when we are irritated and fall when we feel lethargic. The same thing happens with glucose levels. But the fact that in a state of blues you should not make serious purchases, most of us already know from own experience.

Then it turns out that they are extremely unsuccessful, as they cause negative associations. Since it is not possible to physically protect oneself from negative information, one can choose reframing as a defense strategy against it. It sounds mysterious and solid, but it's a very simple technique. The point is to find at least three positive things in any trouble. That's all reframing. Here's how much fantasy is enough. But there is one positive side to any negativity, namely: interpret failures as a life lesson, and this will guarantee that now you will not find yourself in a similar situation again. The second positive thought that can be called to life: thank God that something worse did not happen! upset? And yes, there are more important things to do. In a word, at the end of such a reframing, you will even be glad that it all happened! Well, and draw conclusions, of course!

smiled and... didn't notice. It is very important to learn not to react to negative information coming from people, both acquaintances and strangers. A neighbor commented on your appearance in not the most personal expressions and your mood has deteriorated for the whole day? If this happens quite often, then you need to work out a protection strategy. First, there is a rather serious work to be done on defining one's own, as psychologists say, reference group. That is, a group of people whose opinion is really significant for you, important or beneficial to take into account. Is your roommate a fashion expert? Maybe a reputable stylist? Or is it just the person you want to like? If so, then come back and ask what is wrong with your image? Otherwise, put it out of your head and think about something really important. Observe and decide - maybe you should change your attitude towards this person?

Tune in! They say that the beginning of the work is half the work. And a positive attitude at the beginning of solving any problem is almost a guarantee of its successful completion. A successful student going to take an exam to a “harmful” teacher thinks: “I will make him smile, be surprised and recognize in me the spontaneity, but a thinking person!”

Jonah, who is teetering on the brink of expulsion due to undelivered tails, wanders into the institute with the thought: “He will again mock, ridicule and let me know what a nonentity I am. Lord, why am I doing this? So draw conclusions: a negative attitude, like negative information, has a bad effect on a person.

Don't anchor. The anchor is past failures. It is necessary to fail several times or experience negative emotions in situations of the same type, as a stable association with negative experiences arises. We sit on the "negative anchor" and it is not possible to move ourselves. It is necessary to realize that further the situation itself, or even just its expectation, causes negative emotions, which means that the probability of failure increases. How to be? Try to simulate a similar situation, but with a wonderful, enchantingly successful ending! If so many times unlucky in this area, it is unlikely that the situation will repeat itself! Arouse in yourself the excitement to change the circumstances that we often absolutely undeservedly endow with such mystical power!

Unpleasant conversations
No matter how hard you try, you can't avoid them. For one reason or another, you have to communicate with not very nice people on especially unpleasant topics. At the same time, periodically listen to impartial statements addressed to you. Negative information directed at you personally carries destructive energy that affects mood, self-esteem and general well-being. Therefore, you need to be able to protect yourself from negativity and this will help you succeed in life, be healthy and calm, and also look to the future with optimism. So, if you have to have an unpleasant conversation, learn to perceive it solely as a working moment, nothing more. We must learn not to take anything to heart, especially the negative at our expense. And remember that any problem can be solved, and it should not affect your life negatively. Try to switch to something else more pleasant. Relax or just sleep. Sleep will be the best medicine after an unpleasant conversation.

What to do with the spread of negative information about the company?

Our topic today is the spread of negative information and ways to combat this unpleasant phenomenon. The statistics are harsh - today, many business owners and top managers of companies very often do not pay attention to how negative information affects the company's business. The connection between the fact that one of the clients is offended by the company and financial performance is so opaque, non-obvious, intangible that often the very fact of its existence is questioned or even denied. In addition, there are a number of factors that further reduce the significance of this relationship. For example, marketers make their own contribution to the formation of the “blindness” of this connection, unwittingly. Especially those of them who are engaged in the development of events to form the image of the company and advertising. Which of you, dear readers, has not heard from marketing representatives “We are implementing a new program aimed at improving relations with partners so that they can work with our company as comfortably and conveniently as possible” or something like that? I am sure that almost all of you have come across such assurances. The psychology of most people is arranged in such a way that it is comfortable for us to perceive pleasant information. Information negative character we often tend to ignore or ignore. A leader at any level is a person. And he can treat information in exactly the same way. That is why marketers are not to blame for creating "blindness". They do their job according to the regulations, they do it perfectly! Sometimes they try to make up for the negative that has formed in the relationship with the client. But this work only creates an information barrier, a comfortable barrier of "hope for a better future." And negative information becomes less noticeable. In view of all this, the task of counteracting the spread of negative information is not solved at the system level, when the reasons for its occurrence are understood, but by installing “patches”.

This variant of solving the problem of counteracting the spread of negative information is similar to the methods of work of a bad doctor. Imagine, dear reader, how a person comes to the doctor with a headache and asks for help. The doctor, after listening carefully, prescribes treatment, prescribing expensive drugs. Does this, by chance, remind you of the work of a marketer who reports to management about what customers were dissatisfied with, and then about proposals for improving the situation and the budgets that are needed to implement the proposals? Agree, dear reader, that there are commonalities in the work of a bad doctor and a marketer. Let's think about it and try to figure out what this work will lead to.

I will give an example from my practice. I was approached by representatives of a Moscow company that sells electrical products throughout Russia and has a wide partner network. The essence of their problem was as follows. Sales planning was carried out on the basis of average sales statistics for the year. But over the course of several years, a trend was observed - in St. Petersburg, sales plans were carried out very conditionally. Electrical products of the middle price segment, which sold well in other cities, sold poorly in St. Petersburg, for unclear reasons. And vice versa - products from the high price segment in St. Petersburg sold better than in other cities. The sales department was tasked with increasing the volume of sales of products of the middle price segment, so that “it would be like everywhere else in Russia”. I will tell you in advance, dear reader, that the task was not completed. The usual "salesman's arsenal" didn't work. The company's management tried to use marketing as a promotion tool. Large-scale promotional events were held, a number of joint events with partners with field trips, etc. Significant financial resources have been expended. However, this did not help in solving the problem. An imbalance in planning led to the fact that customers gradually formed an opinion - "this company sells all kinds of nonsense, but you will never find what you need with them." The reputation of the company suffered greatly from this. This is the backstory that the representatives of the company told me.

I will not describe in detail the work that I did on this project. I will tell only about my conclusions and recommendations, which were eventually given to the representatives of the company. Electrical products of the middle price segment have an IP44 dust and moisture protection class, which is not enough for St. Petersburg, because the humidity is very high there. In other words, when temperature drops in the products of the middle price segment, condensate formed, which led to the failure of devices, short circuits in the network with all the ensuing consequences. Such shortcomings in the operation of the devices led to the fact that customers had to systematically repair electrical networks, which required time and additional costs. As a result, the initial benefit from the purchase of devices in the middle price segment was lost due to regular maintenance, and sometimes repair costs were significantly higher than the initial savings. Devices of the high price segment had an IP66 dust and moisture protection class, which allowed their use in a humid environment without breakdowns and malfunctions. It was the peculiarities of the geography of St. Petersburg that answered the question of how to balance sales. Subsequently, when I, together with company representatives, looked at the sales statistics for cities that are close to the “big water” (for example, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Vladivostok, as well as cities on the rivers: Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Novosibirsk ...), it turned out that in these cities have a similar sales imbalance. But since St. Petersburg ranked second in terms of sales after Moscow, the rest of the cities were initially ignored. As a recommendation, I advised you to introduce a factor related to the proximity of the city to the "big water" when planning. I won't name figures, but I will say that the cost of my work cost the client's company eight times cheaper than the budget that the company spent on advertising and joint events with partners. Profitable? Dear reader, consider yourself.

Now let's look at this example, how we managed to neutralize the flow of negative information. When the coefficient was introduced at the stage of sales planning, the situation when there is a shortage of the most demanded products was resolved. The customer, getting what he wanted, could no longer say that this company does not have what he needs. On the contrary, the customer could say that he can always buy what is required. The flow of negative information has stopped.

Let's return to our topic - negative information, how to deal with it and how to neutralize it. As an adherent of a systematic approach to solving problems, I can say the following... Any task related to the dissemination of information, especially negative information, must be solved systematically! Problems of this type can be solved in three ways (see Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Ways to solve problems.

As can be seen from the diagram in Figure 1, each of the methods works at its own time. This does not mean that if you see a deterioration in the situation, then you have to wait until the consequences come in order to take action. Solving the problem using method 3 is the most difficult and costly!

First way. Allows you to significantly minimize losses from negative information, and ideally reduce them to zero. This is a way for those who are used to working ahead of the curve, thinking in advance all the possible consequences of their actions, the actions of their subordinates and colleagues. We can say that this is prevention. After all, the disease is easier to prevent and take preventive measures than to treat or, moreover, deal with complications after the disease. Thus, at this stage, we try to prevent the formation of situations that may cause negative information.

The second way. Unfortunately, not everything in business can be foreseen. There are circumstances that cannot be predicted. It is quite clear that some of these circumstances can cause negative information to appear. We failed to prevent the disease. Now it is necessary to start treatment as soon as possible in order to avoid complications. At this stage, we solve two problems at once. First, it is necessary to eliminate the cause of the negative information. Secondly, it is necessary to neutralize the negative of customers, which has already formed.

Let me give you another example from my practice. Early in my career, I worked for an IT equipment supply company. In mid-November, one of my clients placed an order for equipment, which I, in turn, had to order from abroad. Being, in those days, a person with little experience, I boldly told the client that his equipment would be delivered to him before the end of the year. Alas, I was wrong. I did not take into account that in Europe, according to Catholic canons, Christmas is celebrated at the end of December, and not like ours. Therefore, from December 25, customs terminals in Europe do not work. My client's order is "stuck" at customs in Europe. At the end of December, I had a very unpleasant conversation in a raised voice with a client who was extremely annoyed that his order was “stuck” at customs in Europe. After long negotiations, we nevertheless came to a common decision. However, it cost me part of the profit - I had to give the client a solid discount. Relations with the client have improved.

It can be said that I solved the problem that confronted me in the second way. I lost money on one contract, but kept the client, with whom we had a lot of collaboration later.

The third way. The reason for the emergence of negative information was not predicted at stage 1 and was not neutralized at stage 2. Customers are so “offended” at you that they reduce purchase volumes from you and increase volumes from your competitors, telling everyone around you what an incompetent partner they are and recommend have nothing to do with you. Here they are, the consequences of miscalculations !!!

What to do? First, let's answer another question. And is it necessary to do something at all? You, dear reader, may want to object to me, say: “Let me, if you do nothing, then the company will inevitably collapse!! Action must be taken urgently!!" And, of course, you will be, to some extent, right. But I propose not to discuss this topic, but to understand the essence of the problem. I am sure that any of your actions is aimed at the development of your company, its prosperity, its profitability. It is quite fair to assume that your decisions will seem right to some of your clients, while for others they will cause sharp rejection, criticism and negativity, especially when these decisions are put into practice.

Once I happened to observe the implementation of one solution aimed at customers. The company's management decided to restructure the company's client base. The restructuring was the following process:
- ABC customer analysis;
— Clients whose average monthly volume of purchases did not exceed the established minimum limit were offered to become partners of the second level (to make purchases not from the company, but from “larger” clients).

Of course, the "camp" of customers was divided into two groups. Those customers who still had the right to buy directly from the company were satisfied, because the speed of order processing increased dramatically (“small” customers no longer took time from company managers, and this time was devoted to those customers who remained). Those clients who became partners of the second level were extremely dissatisfied, because for them the purchase prices became higher. This situation is shown schematically in Figure 2.

Rice. 2. Scheme of distribution of clients after restructuring.

The results of the restructuring showed that the company's turnover increased, while the workload of the company's managers decreased.

However, what about the negative information that is spread by clients who have become partners of the second level? To stop the spread of negative information, the company held a series of marketing campaigns aimed at developing second-tier partners. As a result, all negative information was removed, further dissemination of negative information stopped.

Well, now I suggest you, dear reader, look at the spread of negative information and methods of counteracting its spread, as they say, at a glance and sum up:

We all live in time. Negative information does not arise by chance, spontaneously. Its occurrence is connected with our actions. Using the “3 Ways to Solve Information Dissemination Problems” method, it is possible to predict the appearance of negative information long before it appears and take measures to avoid such a development of events. Sometimes it may turn out that negative information and its dissemination will have such small consequences that the need to counteract this will be more resource-intensive than the elimination of the consequences of its dissemination.

If mistakes are made at the forecasting stage and the process of spreading negative information is already in full swing, then, following the principles of a good doctor, it is necessary to deal with the causes that caused the disease. These can be revisions of the company's plans, and cancellations or adjustments of decisions made ... A lot of things. Everything depends on the situation.

If the mistakes made led to negative consequences, when the company has already begun to suffer losses associated with negative information and its dissemination, then time becomes the most important factor! The time that was lost before. Any steps to correct the situation must be clear and consistent. Throwing from side to side will only exacerbate the situation. At this stage, there is no time to first take steps to neutralize negative information, and then return the departed customers. At this stage, many processes will have to be done in parallel to each other, and it is extremely important to track that the processes do not contradict each other.

Today, each of us is forced to process such volumes of information that ten years ago seemed completely unthinkable. Experts say that since the beginning of the 2000s, the amount of information on the planet has doubled every year.

This situation leads to the fact that the influence of information flows on a person increases many times. Regardless of our desire, this process happens all the time. Well, if this impact has a positive impact on the personality of a person. However, most often one has to face the negative consequences of information influence.

We have long been accustomed to the term “information war”, but we are far from always aware of its consequences for our lives and do not take the necessary actions to protect ourselves from its destructive impact.

Definition of information

There are many different definitions and formulations related to the concept of information, but if we take into account that

information is the totality of information about the world around us, about all kinds of processes taking place in it, which can be perceived by living organisms, electronic machines and other information systems,

then there is some idea of ​​what it is.

Types of information

Depending on the specific needs of a person, from the general information field it is possible to single out only what interests us in this moment time.

I, as an ordinary person, are interested in what I have to deal with every day, and this is information:

visual - what can be seen

auditory - what can be heard

tactile - something that can be touched

olfactory - something that can be smelled

gustatory - something that can be tasted.

To be honest, I have always been surprised by the statement: “Man is the crown of creation.” After all, all of the listed channels for obtaining information from a person are extremely limited compared to representatives of the animal world that exists on the planet.

Therefore, it seems to me, there is no point in talking about the primacy, and even more so the perfection, of a person in this matter, at least the person he is today.

In addition to the way of perception, it is also necessary to dwell on the forms of information presentation.

There are such types as:

text - existing in the form of a set of characters and letters,

numerical - represented by numbers, signs, formulas,

graphic - in the form of images, diagrams, graphs,

audio - oral or in the form of a recording on audio media,

media - staying in video format.

The presented classification allows to determine the sources and ways of penetration of information into the personal space of a person.

Information and human worldview

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, there is no such information unit that would be completely neutral for the life of an average person.

The most interesting thing is that it is possible to determine the color of this or that information (positive or negative) only at the “exit” of a person.

“For it is not what defiles a person that enters him, but that which comes out of him” - approximately so, if I am not mistaken, it sounds in the Bible.

Therefore, whether I want it or not, in order to resist the intrigues of all kinds of “well-wishers”, I will have to repeatedly filter both incoming and outgoing information flows from me. To do this, in some cases, is very difficult.

I remember how in the autumn of 2013 and in the winter of 2014 during the Kyiv Maidan, when almost all Ukrainian media covered the events only from the side of “peaceful protesters”, I literally “blew my mind” from not understanding what was happening.

A massive information campaign, carried out in the absence of any alternative sources of information, began to quietly win back those areas of my consciousness that were convinced that the legitimately elected government was right. True, at that time the complete incapacity of its representatives was very surprising, which made it possible to doubt the correctness of all branches of this government and take the path of changing their attitude towards the “Maidanists” from the category of “they are children.”

Thank God it's enough common sense in order to stay in their positions and determine for themselves personally “who is who”. All subsequent events only confirmed my assessments and conclusions in this matter.

Now that Crimea is part of the Russian Federation, and the “border is locked”, I can only sympathize with the people of Ukraine, who continue their difficult existence in this “information cauldron”.

Yes, on your personal experience, I was convinced that it is possible to counteract negative information only with the help of my worldview and inner convictions.

One of my acquaintances in such cases often uses the saying: “On the gate of the barn it is written ... (a word of three letters), and there is firewood.”

Therefore, before succumbing to emotions from what you see or hear, it is necessary, first of all, to investigate the source of this information. If the source is reliable, then the information will be true.

In addition, it should be understood that information products, just like food products, have their own unique shelf life or shelf life.

If today, for example, I call an African American a Negro, then I will pass for an absolutely intolerant person.

It was only during my childhood and youth that the word “blue” meant only “color”, and the word “fuck” was nothing more than “hit hard”. Now these words carry a completely different semantic load and evoke “strawberry” associations only because the moral level and worldview of the mass consciousness has changed. So it turns out that the expiration date of words in their normal meaning has ended and is replaced by a product of the inflamed imagination of individual individuals of mass culture.

I hope that this will not last long and soon: "and there will be a holiday in our street."

You can cite many very useful quotes or sayings about this for as long as you like, but the essence remains the same: “you must keep your inner (spiritual) vessel clean” and always remember that “a fly in the ointment spoils a whole barrel of honey”...

Oddly enough, but the topic of information influence on a person at the same time touches on the issues of positive and negative emotions, the process of thinking of a person and his attitude to the world around him.

Relationship between information influence and emotions

To understand this relationship, it is enough to recall optical experiments from a school physics course: when a beam of white light is passed through a transparent prism, which, due to refraction inside the prism itself, breaks up into a spectrum of rainbow colors.

The same thing happens in the life of each of us. Through our sense organs from the outside, a wide variety of information enters the body, which in the cells of the body breaks up into the smallest and indivisible particles, then is synthesized into new information combinations and goes outside. This happens according to the principle of material-wave exchange.

It's no secret that our entire universe is arranged according to the same principle.

It is enough to remember, for example, the process of digestion, and everything will become clear. Our food, getting into digestive system organism, goes through the stages of splitting into fractions, selection of released energy, reading incoming information and removal of waste material. The energy and information obtained in this process is used to maintain the vital activity of the organism due to the formation of new energy-informational structures.

The necessary and sufficient mechanism in this system (the same prism) is our worldview.

If it becomes mosaic, namely:

when the world is one and whole,

when everything is ordered, interconnected and interdependent,

when all processes and phenomena arise as they develop,

the system is stable and reliable.

If this mechanism begins to work according to a kaleidoscopic scheme, when:

all by chance

all around chaos

there are no causal relationships,

then the whole system as a whole begins to fail and subsequently collapses.

conclusions

In order to successfully resist the negative impact of information and eventually emerge victorious from the information war, it is necessary to have the appropriate tools to determine our location in the theater of operations. The best tool for this, as we said earlier, is our emotions, and in particular, the feeling of joy.

If my goals are in the area of ​​low-frequency vibrations and radiations, then my worldview will become kaleidoscopic, and therefore flawed, as it will not bring true joy. Then, any information entering into me will further contribute to my immersion in low-frequency depths, since its outgoing spectrum will constantly narrow towards dark tones.

In the event that I manage to place my goals at the levels of high-frequency vibrations, then my worldview has a chance to become mosaic and feel the state of joy and happiness in its entirety. Then, the information entering into me will further contribute to the transition to high-frequency levels, since the outgoing spectrum will gradually expand towards light tones.

In any case, the final result will depend only on my choice, which is one single option out of the whole set of possible solutions.

You will do right choice- you will receive a worthy reward, but if you make a mistake, you will not escape a well-deserved retribution.

Once I could not even imagine that sound, for example, can have its own specific color, and color saturation can be determined using sound. However, the technologies of information processing and transmission that exist today make it possible not only to combine previously incompatible natural phenomena into a single whole, but also to discover their new patterns. But more on that some other time...

And on this, dear reader, I hasten to take my leave so as not to bother your refined nature with all sorts of “near-scientific” terms and concepts ... Thank you so much for having mastered this “work” to the end.

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