Negativity Gets Views—But Who Does It Help?

In this episode of Prayers & Blessings: The Podcast, Mark Tyson challenges influential voices to examine how they use their platforms. Too many conversations revolve around snitching, incarceration, street conflicts, and someone’s past—but after the clips go viral, what have we learned?

Discussing the past isn’t the problem. The problem is repeating the history without extracting the lesson. If we talk about someone going to jail, can we also teach the next young person how to avoid that path? If we revisit pain and destructive choices, can we use those stories to help someone create a better future?

Mark also challenges the audience to consider what we support online, because every view is a vote and every share feeds something.

Negativity may capture attention, but positivity can change direction. If we’re going to discuss the past, let’s use it to improve somebody’s future.

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“Discipline obtains excellence. Stay faithful. Stay focused. Stay developing.”  

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up with the what's ups? Welcome back to another episode of Prayers and Blessings the Podcast. I'm your host, Mark Tyson. Today, to ease the pain, I want to speak about the negative and the positive of social media. Because I think it's a great influence in our community that we need to speak on. But before we get to this episode started, let's join with prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for another beautiful day, another opportunity for my voice to be heard to fall on ears that's needed. Today, may this conversation move the needle forward. May it bless those that's less fortunate. May it open up the hearts and the ears of those that has podcasts. In your name's sake, we pray. Amen. What's up? What the wash-ups. So today I want to speak about podcasts in the state that it's in right now, right? Okay, let's not say podcast, let's say social media in the state that it's in right now. Because I notice a lot of people, when we're in rooms, everybody's saying social media has so much negative content, so much negative content, and it's like that the that the positive content is getting drowned up. And I noticed that in that room, the majority of the people are saying the same thing about the negative content, right? How the fights get so many views and shootings get so much attraction and you know just uh gossip and friend-on-friend uh beefing, it they talking about each other because it's helping them, you know, get more views and more engagement. What are you feeding yourself, right? What are we feeding the people? In the aspect of the reason why these things are getting so much attention is because us as a people, we're feeding it, right? Now I know everybody in this room, there's about 20, 30 people in the room. I know all of them are not innocent of, you know, even though everybody was on the same page saying, yeah, it's a lot of negative consensus, negative this negative that. But I noticed that I'm pretty sure everybody in that room has watched some negative content at some point, something that was distasteful at some point. And the reason why it's getting so much traction is because we are feeding it the algorithm, but we're also watching it when it's played. We're also even if you say a negative comment, someone posts something, and you go in and say a negative comment, like, yo, this is foul, who posted this, you still engage with it, so you're still giving it life. Even an angry comment pushes uh the content further. Then the content creators admit, you know, that negativity produces views, so they continue making it. They say, I've seen content that I've watched and interviews that I've watched personally, where the gentleman sit there and say, the people love negative conflict, so I'm gonna keep on putting it up there and I'm gonna keep posting it until I get enough money to start speaking about it differently. So to me, that's that's that's hypocritical in the midst of the conversation that they were having because he was saying, you know, um we don't give each other a shot at life, people don't help each other out, but then when you push the record button on your camera, you're saying so much negative, um, so much negativity. And positive content doesn't have to be boring or weak. You know, positive content, I believe that positive con positive conf content is for the person that's looking for something to keep them pushing their needle forward in life. I don't believe anyone watches negative content to stay stagnant. I believe they watch it just because it's entertaining. Ask yourself this question. How come we don't find positive content entertaining? How come we don't find things that's uplifting, intriguing, entertaining? I've noticed people have interviews and podcasts with people that's going to jail, coming home to jail, telling their past, telling about stabbings and rapings and robberies and uh things that have happened in their past and it happens to other people, and we sit there and we watch that, and when you get up from the conversation, it didn't benefit you any. You get to tell somebody I seen that episode last week, but how did you benefit from that? Now I'm a I can honestly say there's a separation between podcasts and movies. You can sit there and watch a movie, you know there's drama, you know there's a thriller, you know that it's comedy, but when you sit in there with people that you know we view as celebrity status, and we know their voice is going to get heard amongst millions of people, I believe that we have some type of job to push the narrative in a different perspective. Instead of just gossip all the time. Who said about what? Who said this about uh did we didn't we didn't learn from the from the deaths of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur what happens when the media get things and push the narrative into a negative light? We didn't learn that when the media get actually look at we gotta be the media right now. The the celebrities are the voice. I remember there was a time when it was so much negative going on that they had self-destruction. They would the artists would get together and make songs that would try to change things. We all the world. Now it's like none of the artists click up to try to let their voice be heard in a positive light. It's just whatever you get, if you're willing to take it, you take it. They just give you whatever. As long as it's pushing the needle, and as long as it's bringing them the bag. It's like money is the end all be all. Money is it rules the nation. I thought it was conversation rules the nation. Why are we more why are we why are we so attracted to conflict than solution? Can you honestly disrespect can you honestly disagree with someone without disrespecting them? There's a content there's a content creator, right? That I was following. And I was following him because I thought that we I thought that some of his life story was um mirroring mine. As far as growing up as a child, he was in a foster home. The person I'm talking about is Oskino, right? Um I was liking his story. I like to see some of the things some of the things he went through and how he overcame them. But then as I watched him, I started noticing that he was having a lot of drama, right? But when I was looking at the drama he was going through, he was going through the drama with all the people that used to be his friends. Everybody he used to hang with, everybody was in his circle at one time. Everybody that he was um right next to. So now the people that we use that we was right next to, we use that as a mockery and a storyline to build views, followers, but it's nothing but negative. It's nothing but negativity. You know what I'm saying? If you look at his, if you look at his track record, right? What it was, Garcia, he said, but that was his man's at one time. He came to his house, he got him a roley, Christian Neath, the Young Guns, Beanie Seagulls, all of these people, uh uh Memphis Bleak, this, everybody that he's had beef with or some type of quarrel with, it was someone in the aspect that he was once at a part in time was affiliated with, right? Now I know that me personally, there's a lot of people that I was affiliated with, that I once had, that I've that I've had some type of quarrel with, right? And I guess because their names are known, that gives you the shock value to ride that because you know the storyline and the people that he's talking about, that gives you a reason to watch it. Because you want to see their feedback on it. But what about the youth around them that's watching that? What are they picking up? Are they picking up, okay, if I got a friend and I go through something with him, I can blast him and splash him on the internet. I could talk bad about him because he did me wrong, I could make a mockery of him, I could I can see anything I want to say about him, as long as truth behind it. But then when the friend can't handle it and they pull a weapon or take it further than that, um, it's just they fault. Social media had nothing to do with that. We didn't paint that picture, we didn't give them that image to live off of. It's at some point we doing everything, we doing any and everything for a dollar. Now some people might say this, right? Some some some hood people, you know I mean, at least he ain't breaking in nobody's crib. At least he ain't robbing nobody. At least he ain't taking nobody down, at least he ain't pulling no gun out, he's just sitting in the front of the camera and um and he just popping his, uh, he just popping his mess and he doing what he do. And it's and he's putting money in his pocket. The tongue is powerful though. What we see we do in our actions, everybody can't handle that in the same perspective. So you saying that you have to wait till you get to a certain status of money, because this was he said that. He said, maybe when I get my when I get my money right and I get then I get and I get to a certain status, then I'll start changing and start saying things differently. So everything comes with a bag now. This is the this is this is the this is the lifestyle that we generate. I could be foul and distasteful and say anything about anybody I want, as long as some money comes with it, because that's the excuse I'm running with. That's how I pay my bills. When we was out in the streets ripping and running around, serving anything and all that poison to the to the to the to the humans, that was how we paying our bills, but that wasn't right. And at that point in time, we wasn't telling nobody what to do. We was leading by example. We was picking it up, going outside selling it. We was watching the older the OGs out there doing it. We was seeing what they're doing, seeing what they got, and we was following it. The same format. It's the same blueprint. We pushing this button, we putting out the negative nonsense. Some youth gonna look at it, put the same negative nonsense out, but their repercussion and their backlash might be way differently than somebody running their crib and lay them down because they can't take what you had said about them. And what we're gonna do is say, Man, that was crazy. Young boy scattered. He wow. Not even taking the accountability that we planted that seed. When I say we, I mean me, us as a people because we look the same. I don't see too, I can't say that I don't see too many other cultures doing these things because I don't watch other cultures. Maybe if if I was totally wrapped in the other cultures, then I could see the flaws and what they're doing for their race and their people. But right now I'm talking about us. Us as a people, we gotta do, we should be doing better. Because at one time we was pointing the finger at everybody else and blaming them why we can't get ahead. Why we not using this range that we have right now? You know what I'm saying? To lay down laws and perspective to raise the youth in the in a different vis in a different view. We just giving them whatever because we getting what we want out to do. Ain't nothing thorough about that. And because controversy sells, that's what we doing? That's as far as your brain go. And you know, society was saying that it's not our fault, and if your kids can't handle it, don't let them listen to it. You remove remove them from around, you know, um hip-hop. They can watch, they can watch uh uh a gangster movie. That don't mean they don't go out there and be do some gangster things. They used to try to make it sound like it was good. Oh, you gonna try to blame rat on the violence that we had, but they they can the movies that we watch got violence in it too, right? So we would they would lay finding a crutch and finding a way to say it's okay. But if the children is picking up on some things and moving foul because of it, isn't it isn't it alright to change that? Isn't it our prerogative that we got the control over that to change that? I know for sure my parents ain't let me out there singing, selling selling all the drugs and all that. But because I seen it in the neighborhood, I was picking it up. Because you see these things on these social media platforms. Do you know how many fights get started, right? Off of a fight that they seen on social media. They seen how something was handled. So when they get into that predicament and they get into that situation, they try to handle it the same way they seen it handle when they watch one of this, when they watch this content. We gotta do better. Seriously. We complaining about man, they keep putting all this nonsense on social media. Social media full of nonsense. It's a lot of nonsense that's not out there. But if you keep watching it, if you keep um commenting on it, then that's what you're gonna get back. If I go down your timeline, right? Oh, I can see your social media history and see what you watched in the last month. What the what what would what would it say about your character? Would your social media history represent your character? If we was to go see how many um cop shootings and cop beatings and girls getting locked up and robbed and all that, would you, would that, would that represent your character? Or would that just say, it was on my timeline, so I watched it. You know your timeline have a have a have a way of keep feeding you what you consistently watch. Whatever you watch today and you watch tomorrow and watch the next day, the agam rhythm has a way of continuously keep feeding that to you. The ogam rhythm does not determine who we are. We teach the ogam rhythm what we want. Every time you view it, that's a vote saying, yo, I want to see more. Every time you share it, it's support. Every comment feeds something. So before you click it, ask yourself, is I'm feeding the problem or the or my or or the solution. It's to the point where it's though we so contradicting because I seen I've seen people uh do a whole two months, right? Talking about Jay-Z. I see this person, I'm scrolling on page. I go, I if I get if I if I go if I go on my social media platform and I see too much of something showing up on my Facebook, I go to TikTok and go over there, and it'd be the same now. I'm like, yo, how is this coming? Who's fitting this? It's coming from here to there to here to there, right? And it's and it's to the point where as though um they don't it because of the money. You can see somebody say, Ho got so much money, why is his family uh not better, right? But if I had money like that, none of my people would have the want for nothing. So what's the difference in that man making sure his people don't want for nothing? But if you had the same money, you would make sure your people don't want for nothing. But at the same time, that's negative conflict that need the people that watch it and ain't getting nothing out of that. You're not getting nothing from that. What did you say in that what did you say in those two outlets, right? What did you say in that conf conversation that one of the babies could have benefited from? What did you say that pushed the envelope forward? That showed the youth how to carry themselves, how to handle themselves when the traffic stopped, how to handle themselves when you know danger is uh uh approaching. How to create their own business, how to become an entrepreneur. Now, all content is not negative, but the majority of it is just outbleating nonsense. They got this one lady, she going, she getting money off of just cursing all that. She do all she does go in there and curse. A gillion and one followers. Ain't said nothing. The gillion and one followers that's watching, I'm looking like, why? What are you getting now? What it? I got I got I gotta go to the I gotta go to the box, I gotta go to the button and be like, not interested. So it don't even come because they're gonna send it across your page just to see if you watch it and see if you're gonna log on and see if you're gonna follow. Not interested. Get out of here. When I when it first popped up, I'm like, hold on, who's this? Maybe she's going through something. She's stressed out going through the motion. Then you look at her time. She just cursed and cursed and curse, curse, curse, curse, curse, curse. If you don't like my page, don't watch it. Keep scrolling. You ain't gotta watch it. You ain't gotta tell me twice.

unknown 22:14

Boop!

SPEAKER_00 22:18

I thought you needed help. And then this is this is the other thing, right? When you watching it, right, you'll be watching something negative or something foul. With your niece and nephew sitting right next to you. Now they picking it up, they thinking that's cool. Negativity gets you the views, but at what cost? At what cost? At what cost is all this negative and this nonsense getting you these views? We say we want we say we want positivity. We sure don't be supporting drama. We be supporting drama on the low. People will be supporting it on the low. They'll be watching it. And then after they finish watching it, they'll go sit right around you be like, yeah, it ain't nothing but some nonsense on there. All you do is sit up, it'll be the same person in the crib watching that journal. Sharing it. I got an uncle, he sent me nothing but funny clips and all kinds of weird stuff. His whole joint he sent me. Once he said, it's to the point now, I don't even open them jaws. I click it, I see the little joint, I just scroll, I just go right out of there. Cause me personally, if it ain't beneficial to me, I don't want to watch it. If it ain't giving me, if it ain't giving me no inspiration, no pushing me, helping me push my envelope forward, I can't really, it didn't, if it was a waste of my three minutes, four minutes. I don't wanna see this, I don't wanna see that goofy stuff every day. Send me something that's gonna be like, yo, this is how you can rehab a home in 27 days and get it back on the market and do this and that and the third, or they got some properties down. Give me send me something that's gonna help me push the envelope forward. Or uh, this is the way to get your podcast creation, something that is in the lane that I'm living in. Anything other than that is a waste of time. Why I'm sending you, you, you, you home trying to figure out how to get your book published, right? And you're trying to figure out what lane to go and how to build an audience, but I'm sending you um some cartoons about somebody uh getting shot or laying in the bed with some woman that didn't got nothing to do with what you got going on. I just wasted your time. For what? We gotta do better, people. Like I said before, every view is a vote, man. Every time you view something, you just voted for it and said, yeah, keep on giving it. Keep on letting it ride. Think about these babies, man. Think about these kids coming up behind us, man. That's the that's one of the reasons why I changed, you know, my criteria on my social media platform. Because I know my kids are gonna get one of these phones one day. They're gonna get the they're gonna get social media platform. I don't wanna be part of the solution. I'm trying to be part of the, I won't be part of the problem. I'm gonna be part of the solution. Pardon me. I don't want them to see my page and be like, yeah, dad think this is thorough, so now they're thinking that's thorough. They thinking it's cool. Ain't no, it really ain't no way around it. This is the new wave right now. You know what I'm saying? Social media is the new wave, it's locked in. So them kids bound to get it. This is what you this this what you want your kids to watch what you've been watching. And then once they get trapped into the meta world, they locked in. They watching it for hours, hours, and hours, and hours. When I get up in the morning, you know what I do? I'm trying to motivational joint on while they're getting dressed and all that for school, walking around, they hear something positive going in the background. You know what I mean? Before they dip, we said the prayer, they go to their school, I go to work, come back, you know what I mean? Because I know that my kids are gonna be around somebody else's kids later on in life. And I want them to be in a position where though they can bring some positivity to the people they're around so that they're not influencing somebody else's child to be foul, negative, or reckless. You know what I'm saying? What are we doing? What are we doing here as a people? If you like prayers and blessings the podcast, continue to tune in. Wherever you find your podcast, prayers and blessings the podcast is there. You wanna see the video, watch it on YouTube. You wanna if you are if you're not on YouTube, you can just hear my voice, you wanna see who I am, you got some questions, you want to tune in, you wanna be interviewed. The um my platform is open, I pull up on you, do mobile, um some mobile podcasts. I pull right up on you, you ain't gotta come to the studio, I come to you, sit down, we mic up, sit down and chop it up. You know what I'm saying? This is for the community because we gotta make better space for us to put our feet up at. You know what I'm saying? We gotta make a better space for us to put our feet up at and be comfortable. You know what I mean? You want your kids to be comfortable, you want to live comfortable. You wanna see something different. We be talking about change, but how we gonna change if we sit back and complain about people that's doing things that we disagree with, and now any any and everybody have a platform to speak on, we should all be speaking about putting something better in the atmosphere, changing the trajectory of things that's going around right now. If you um like the podcast, hit the like button, um, share, YouTube, turn your notification on so you'll know when a new episode is dropped. Prayers and blessings the podcast. With Faith, Flavor, and Focus Feeds the Soul. Thank y'all for tuning in. And remember, hug somebody and tell them you love them. They just might hug you back and tell you they love you. I'm just saying. Holler at your boy.