Is Forced Positivity Online Possible?

The Internet is a mean place and teens often feel the brunt of users cruelty worse than any other demographic. One site that is trying to keep user generated content more positively focused is We Heart It – a kind of a visual social network like Pinterest for teens. Users build and share galleries or “canvases” of images they like online by clicking a little heart symbol with no down-voting or cruel comments allowed. But, even on this site there are questionable inclusions. Inspiration pictures with tag lines like “Don’t kill yourself over a boy, he’ll bring another girl to your funeral” and “No one cares unless you’re pretty or dying” seem an odd kind of positivity. The site does employ moderators who can use their own judgment in taking down images—and the terms of service forbid pornographic, racist, or hateful photos, but perhaps sometimes being positive is in the eye of the beholder.