For his birthday Arnold Schwarzenegger shared seven “unreasonable goals“. All of which are goals he’s working on and all of which are goals he wants others to join in.

They all contribute to what he assesses to be a kinder, healthier, and happier world.

One of the goals is a lesson he learned from his father: “be useful”

On his birthday list, he connects this idea with the way many people relate to social media or present themselves. He also shares his memories of reading the newspaper in his youth to then discussing it at the dinner table.

Quite often I go back to reading the newspaper. In a way, I find them easier to read as I am not chassed by some ads nor subject to people posting that article somewhere on the web. I can read it at my own pace and have the time to make up my mind about the content of the article.

Schwarzenegger nailed the reason.

Most of the time, when people post articles about politics or the like on the web, they do so to pull people towards their opinion. That is, almost always, some complaint. They might highlight how good that article is because it supports the problem they want to see disappear. And so, they constantly point out what they see as a problem, repeat it and complain that it hasn’t been solved yet.

And when I read the article they invited me to read, I’m reading it with their opinion or quest in mind.

Yes, we need to be aware of existing problems. And there is worth in people pointing out that they see a problem.

However, maybe not everything people perceive to be a problem is a problem!

If we could weed out all the posts that highlight how others don’t hold on to an adequate moral standard, have different ethics, or have different ideas about what is right, we probably could reduce the published problems by more than 50%.

Somewhere in the last 8 or 10 years, things changed, and people decided that they could play the police on other people’s attitudes and behaviors, assuming that they could be considered a problem.

Being useful doesn’t require telling others how to behave. A more productive approach is to share one’s values and how they find their place in everyday behavior. And maybe it doesn’t need to even be shared on social media, it can simply happen with the person in front of you.

It will have enough of a ripple effect.

And if you want to do something on social media, just let go of rewarding others for posting their complaints.