8/15/2023 0 Comments Stay safe synonym![]() ![]() The people pondering similarities did report feeling more connected but there was no change in their mood. “That helped them not a little bit,” Gentile says. The folks in comparison condition got no benefit. The results should be inspiring to anyone who hasn’t already bought into the benefits of loving-kindness through traditions that have been championing them for millennia. They measured everyone’s feelings before and after. focusing on ways they might be better off than others. A third group was told to engage in downward social comparison, a strategy familiar to anyone who has ever used Instagram, i.e. Others were told to contemplate deep levels of connection or similarities they might have with people. And it may feel emptier the more times someone hears it.įor a study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies last year, Gentile and his colleagues put subjects in one of three conditions (along with a control group): some were told to wander around a building for 12 minutes, notice people and silently, sincerely wish for them to be happy. And while that’s a fine message to spread, it’s not quite the same as the “loving-kindness” that his research has focused on. “It’s telling you to pay attention, be alert, protect yourself,” Gentile says. In his eyes, it can convey the benign bossiness of parents telling their teenager to “stay safe” as the child heads out on a Friday night, the implication being that they might not be as conscientious as they should be. Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University who has studied well-wishing, says that along with good hopes, such phrases also function as an admonition. Sign-offs like “Stay safe” may even seem condescending, however kindly they are meant. If it’s the latter, “it can lack the force that we might want it to have in the world.” Whether well-wishing achieves this “may depend on whether it feels like a genuine sentiment or has become a cliché,” Zimmer explains. ![]() For a speech act to work, he says, two things must happen: you have to mean it and it has to have the proper effect on its audience. It’s language that does something when the words are uttered, like an officiant who says, “I now pronounce you husband and wife” and thereby makes you husband and wife. Well-wishing, explains Zimmer, falls into a category of language known as a speech act. At this point, these sign-offs can already feel rote, much like “ thoughts and prayers” expressed after the latest tragedy. And they’re safe bets: These phrases have been around a long time because they send a clear, solicitous message.īut the fact that these were options people turned to early, leading more people to turn to them - including PR folk taking part in the great coronavirus email-marketing blitz - has taken steam out of their well-wishing power. Many people have embraced some version of “Stay safe” or “Be well” or “Take care.” Some already using one of them on the regular have even doubled up: “Take care and best wishes” (emphasis mine). Out is “Warmly” and in is “Handwashingly.” Others have done it while parodying the very stock phrases that no longer feel responsive enough. “With clean hands and appreciation,” read the valediction of a list-serv for fintech founders in mid-April. Some have incorporated the PSA more subtly, with a side of privilege acknowledgement. Still, there is at least one approach that will likely be relevant come summer: wishing someone well.Īs new guidance about social distancing has come out, some people have ginned up sign-offs that combine well-wishing with reminders about what everyone is supposed to do: “Stay safe and stay home!” or “Stay safe and wash those hands!” “Whatever is good advice today might be totally different in a week,” McCulloch says. At the same time, the need for catharsis – and people’s willingness to achieve it through making jokes about the whole surreal situation – is on the upswing too. The possibility that you’re sending a cold email to some who is unemployed or sick or bereaved has increased. ![]() The rawness and urgency to check in with everyone have subsided (which is good, because it was getting a little exhausting, right?). As we have moved from Week One of sheltering in place to Week Whatever This Is, the collective mood has shifted. We are also in a rapidly evolving situation, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention like to say. “Stay sane” might land if that person’s biggest problem is being bored. Yet the specifics of someone’s situation can still vary wildly, which makes it hard to pick one new phrase and use it in every message you send. ![]()
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