The multitude of ways that moods are affected is perhaps much too diverse a subject to speak about here; I will limit the post to mentioning only the way, or ways, that concerns our purpose. I will write it in a logical deductive process, for personal practice, but the message will be the same. I will make major presuppositions in this post because it is not a philosophical writing, even if it is structured as one; it is done for speed primarily. I beg the reader however to think about what has been said regardless of how it has been said; and try and see if what has been said is something that occurs in the reader’s life, or something that the reader is aware of. This post is dedicated to all our humble ladies and gents that board the public transport to get to work; how useful are those newspapers that you read before you go to work?
Mood is severely affected by thought patterns. The way you think, or what you think about undoubtedly affects the way you feel. We can all agree that there is a connection between thought and mood. A negative thought can lead to a negative mood, and a positive thought can lead to a positive mood. The relationship is not always from thought to mood, sometimes a mood can affect a thought, but I digress, we shall only consider the former way for our purposes.
Premise 1: Thought affects mood.
Symbols: (the equal sign with an arrow(’ => ‘) is simply to indicate that they are interrelated or that they affect each other; the direction of the arrow implies the direction of affect discussed in the text, e.g. thought affects mood, would be, thought => mood)
thought = t, Mood = m: t => m
Let’s equate utility to efficiency; let’s say what’s useful is efficient. Let’s also say that a good mood is useful (in the work environment); being happy or in a good mood is a useful thing. A happy worker is an efficient worker after all. Thus, I hope, that we can all agree to the premise that a good mood is connected to efficiency and utility. To sum up, mood affects efficiency, and thus utility, for efficiency is equated here with utility in that what is efficient is useful.
Premise 2: Mood affects efficiency. Efficiency is useful, therefore mood affects utility.
Symbols: (mood = m, efficiency = e, utility = u)
m => e……. u => e ………therefore,………. m => u
Your thoughts are affected by what you read; reading stimulates your thinking either positively or negatively. What you read affects what you think. You read the newspaper everyday, and especially more so in the morning. The newspaper will affect the content of your thought. The newspaper is mostly found to be with news that are negative, because for some reason or other it is the negative news that interest people. Negative news leads to negative thought, 90% of newspapers have negative news and thus, 90% of your thinking in the morning will be negative.
From this negative thought, one attains a negative mood (as shown in premise 1). A negative mood (depression, anger, frustration, anxiety, worry etc.) leads to a downfall in efficiency (as shown in premise 2) because you’re not happy any more, your mind is thinking about the multitude of deaths in the East as well as problems with mortgage rates. Efficiency drops, and in turn your utility drops too, you’re no longer as useful are you could have been (premise 2).
Final premise: Reading affects your thought. Newspapers are 90% negative, therefore your thought will be 90% negative. Negative thought leads to a negative mood. Negative mood leads to a negative efficiency and in turn a negative utility. You’re no longer as useful as you can be. The source of this is the newspapers. Thus, newspapers are not useful, in the morning at least.
Symbols: ( ‘>’ means ‘leads to’, e.g. negative thought leads to negative mood would be, negative thought > negative mood)
Reading = r, Newspaper = n, mood= m, efficiency = e, thought = t, utility= u
r => t ……. n => r …….. thus, ………. n=>t
-n > -r ….. -r > -t ….. -t > -m …….. -m > -e …… -e > -u ……
therefore, -n > -u
Hahahaha, I can’t begin to describe how anti-philosophical the above is. It is fun though, try and see if you can decipher it. It shouldn’t be too hard.
Anyways, here is the point. Stop reading newspapers in the morning, or even listening to depressing music. These are all things that affect your mood, and it sets the precedent for the rest of the day. Reading the newspaper in the morning will not lead to a good day, or rather not as good as it can be, unless of course something to boost you up happens; e.g. someone proposes to you, or asks for your number, or you get a raise. To make a long story short, the way you feel and how useful you are to others in the work environment, and most importantly to yourself, is affected by what you think. What you think will be altered by the negative constituents that are inevitably present in newspapers.
Stop, reading newspapers in the morning, do yourself, and the world, a favour and throw it away; read some interesting poetry or some humour. We’re all sick and tired of seeing unhappy depressed faces in each and every one of you on the tubes and buses. Stop it! Smile and laugh; you’ll feel better, I promise. To smile and laugh more easily, make your thoughts more prone to those emotions. If your thoughts are on a negative spiral, I promise you that there is no room for positivity; there is no room for happiness when all the room you have is occupied by something that leads to unhappiness. Give your mind some room to be happy, feed it with something positive, in the morning at least. You can always read newspapers in the evening; no worries there because you can just sleep your negativity off.
incognitio
