Everything sucks, or at least it feels that way. 2025 has felt like a roller coaster that only goes downhill. Between international wars, the failing job market, unaffordable groceries, and the overturning of civil rights, the degrading headlines we’ve absorbed in the media this past year have been nothing less than suffocating.
While we recognize our current global crises as real and deeply troubling, our perception of them is further intensified by the way the media selectively skews the news they publicize. Broadcasting companies intentionally present a significantly larger ratio of demeaning and gruesome global events than those that are uplifting and unifying, as humans have the natural survival instinct to pay closer attention to fearsome situations.
For these corporations, negativity bias is a simple business tactic to target a larger audience, but for consumers, it has created an earnest cry for good news. For example, a Reddit user described Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter as “toxic” and “the worst they’ve ever been”.
But despite what it seems, our world isn’t completely dystopian. Positivity still exists, even though it lurks in corners — it just must be pulled out. In fact, in multiple ways, our economic, social, and environmental states have improved globally.
So, if you’re a person who wants to scream every time you open a social media app or feel as though all hope in humanity has been lost, here are three examples of some positive current events to change up your usual feed.
The ozone layer is healing and expected to be completely recovered by 2066.
Our world’s physical barriers constantly protect us from disaster, often in ways we are ignorant of. The ozone layer is such a case. Essentially, it is a layer of the earth’s atmosphere that absorbs most of the harmful ultraviolet rays (UV) from the sun. However, because it is 10-25 miles up in the sky, we don’t often think about the fact that it is the reason we haven’t been baked to death, or all died from cancer caused by exposure to UV rays.
Unfortunately, due to the prolonged release of human-made chemicals into the atmosphere during the 20th century, the ozone layer was left in terrible condition. Most notably, a gaping hole overwhelmed the part of the layer safeguarding Antarctica. As a result, UV rays increased by about 85% in the region. This caused scientists and politicians to immediately spring into action, because unless someone could magically invent an SPF human forcefield, the future of humanity and wildlife was looking hot — and not in the good kind of way.
Thanks to these professional efforts, including extensive environmental research and the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty aimed at reducing the chemicals that harm the ozone layer, the hole over Antarctica is now projected to fully heal by 2066, marking the first time in history it has ever been in recovery.
Mackenzie Scott donated $70 million to support historically black colleges.
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) have had some of the most influential people graduate from their institutions. Such figures include major civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize–winning author Toni Morrison, and the first Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Not to mention the long list of revolutionary inventions emerging from HBCU’s, like the imaging spectrometer used-on NASA missions and groundbreaking research for sickle cell disease.
Even though historically black colleges have created an extremely successful legacy, they have been forced to do a lot with a little. In 2021, HBCU’s accumulated only half the amount of government funding non-HBCU’s received. It makes you wonder how much more advanced our society could be if African Americans were not denied equal opportunity to their white counterparts.
Luckily, historically black colleges receive funding from outside sources, thanks to the people that see the vitality of funding Black education and innovation. In September 2025 Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezo’s ex-wife, donated $70 million to the United Negro Fund to expedite their $1 billion campaign to support HBCU’s.
Scott’s donation wasn’t charity work; it was an investment in the nation’s future. She is a prime example of allowing excellence to thrive where opportunity exists.
Women are dominating the new class of NASA astronauts.
The patriarchy has sunk its teeth into women since the beginning of time. However, because society is becoming more and more progressive, gender classism is diminishing, with women dominating professional fields. For example, for the first time in history, NASA’s 2025 class of astronauts is majority women. Out of over 8,000 applications, six women (out of ten people), were accepted into the most influential space agency in the world.
NASA’s astronaut class is particularly difficult to get into due to the extensive STEM education and physical endurance, one must have developed over their entire careers. So, these women have proven not only their skill and determination but are also living proof that clichés accusing women as the weaker and less intelligent sex, are no longer impeding on their potential greatness.
The astronauts’ achievements serve as inspiration for the next generation of girls aspiring to break barriers, teaching a lesson to never let up on the person they want to become.
Overall, in a world that seems overwhelmed with constant negativity, it is easy to ignore the subtle yet profound movements that are occurring all over the world. From replenishing Earth’s natural state to the social progression breaking the bounds of oppression, these are the kinds of tales which show that hope isn’t gone, — it is merely buried beneath the noise. To keep from burning out, maybe we should change our outlook, celebrating the good that is happening — our proof that even in the worst times, humanity can still move in the right direction.
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