Why I feel the world is becoming a better place

World today seems to be under pressure. There is terrorism, religious riots, nations trying to take over one another, rape, poverty, inequality, there is death of democracy, and there are countless cases of fraud and endless scams.

Despite this, I say, the world is getting better by day. Living in a city reputed to be unsafe and working in the field of digital marketing - creating and marketing creative content to drive the attention of the masses to specific websites by observing the behaviour of consumers on the world wide web - I see a positive trajectory towards optimism and betterment.

The internet is a messy place. Infinite amount of data is available for everyone to consume, with content of all sorts ranging from porn to tutorials teaching how to make a bomb to personal pieces that people share. What you search for, and what you consume as a user of the internet, can say much about your personality. I am no one to judge anybody for the personal choices they make. My point is that there is a greater tendency to read, "like", and share optimistic content on the internet as compared to sharing stories that may have a negative impact.

The basic human psyche is in desperate search for optimism. Life is tough, and there are people who make it tougher. The one who is struggling for whatever reasons, be it physical or emotional, the one who is ensuring others struggle, the one who is trying to make it better for people around him, the one who is trying to make life work for himself - everybody is searching for that one moral optimistic push each second.

This, I feel, is the reason of the tremendous success of a simple Facebook page with a simple idea - Humans Of New York (HONY). The stories HONY shares are positive. The main idea behind HONY is that. That is the reason why Brandon, the man behind HONY, takes so much time to talk to people, understand them better, and find that optimistic streak towards life no matter how hard you're struggling. Reading these stories put the consumer in a position where the individual feels that there is still goodness in the world. Despite tragic occurrences and natural calamities, there is hope for a better world because the number of good people in the world is more than the bad ones. It is, in fact, wrong to say or think there are "bad" people. People are, in their core, good. The reaction and response to various life circumstances of one individual viewed from another individual's perspective is what makes someone good or bad.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool which gives you the real picture about how content is consumed. I have noticed a trend that articles which are positive, talk about goodness in the society, which talks about humane acts by kind hearted people, does much better than those articles about terrorism or gossips about popular people. This comment beneath an article that talks about an act of kindness is proof.

Jason Silva, the brain behind an amazing series of short videos called Shots of Awe, talks about how we're on the right track. He quotes author Steven Pinker: "Today, the chances of a man dying on the hands of another man, on a global scale, are the lowest than they've ever been in the history of mankind."

Question is: If we're on the right track, if everyone is in search of optimism, kindness and humane acts, why is there an inhibition to help others? Why is there lack of selfless service? Food for thought this one, but I still believe we, as a community and society, are becoming better by the day!