As the days grow shorter and the weather cooler (depending on what hemisphere you’re in), it’s pretty easy to feel melancholic or worse about the world. So, like a sweet treat or nice message in one’s DMs, it can be good to engage with something that makes you feel good.
The “Beauty Of Planet Earth” Facebook group is dedicated to sharing uplifting, wholesome and heart-warming pictures of our planet that might make you feel better about life. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section down below.
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#1 And Now We’re Smiling Too 🥰
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#2 Kid Beats Cancer
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#3 True Meaning Of Christmas ❤
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
With so much online outrage, controversy, and doom-scrolling going on, the process of discovering really wholesome content is a profoundly satisfying experience. Perhaps it's dog reunions with their human families, neighborhood communities coming together for the good of a neighbor, or just a video of someone finally achieving a long-held ambition. Wholesome content is a kind of digital comfort food for our overstimulated minds. But why are we attracted to such cheerful moments, especially if programmatic platforms seem to exist only to get us angry and wired?
The answer starts with basic brain chemistry. Social media's addictiveness activates the reward system of the brain by releasing dopamine. That's a "feel-good chemical" linked with positive activities. Most social media content triggers dopamine through anger, controversy, or FOMO, but healthy content offers a more positive pathway to the same neurochemical reward. Instead of getting our dopamine hit from anger or fear, we're getting it through joy, hope, and togetherness.
#4 Nice Job Teacher
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#5 Mans Best Friend
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#6 Teachers Are So Much More Than Just Educators
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Research shows that the type of content we consume has a direct impact on our emotional state and behavior. This applies much more widely than advertising, if we watch or read something that makes us feel better, it actually makes us feel better and look at the world in a more positive way, creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop that causes us to want to see more of the same.
#7 Honouring An Old Dog's Last Wish
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#8 The Impact Of A Teacher
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#9 Best Mum Ever
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The popularity of clean content also reflects an innate need for emotional balance, especially in our current media landscape. But we can all benefit from more happiness in our life, especially now as the more insidious burn-out effects of the last few years really start to set in in creative ways in all our lives. If this form of popular content is giving us good faith and optimism because it just feels so clean and genuine, then it's serving as a counter to all the sheer negativity that fills most of our media consumption.
#10 An Iranian Teacher Visits His Cancer-Stricken Student Every Day To Catch Him Up On What He Missed At School
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#11 His Smile Says It Was Worth It!
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#12 My Daughter And Her Favorite Doll
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
There is also the psychological element of our inherent need for hope and meaning. Studies sometimes indicate that film and other forms of media are a bad influence to contain. But recent research underscores their ability to disseminate goodness on a broad level. Good content doesn't merely put us in a better mood in the moment, it can actually shape our behavior and worldview positively, reminding us that goodness is present and deserving of praise.
#13 What A Great Teacher
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#14 My Six Year Old Daughter Has Been Asking For Months To Have A Mohawk Like Her Daddy. I Cut It For Her Today. My Kid Is A Right Badass
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#15 My Baby With My Dog’s Babies
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
The contagious nature of family-friendly content reveals something fascinating about human psychology. Overall, research has shown that videos eliciting very strong emotional intensities (positive, such as happiness or awe, or negative, such as anger or fear) are more likely to be forwarded. Individuals tend to want to share material that makes them feel good, and this suggests that our hunger for positivity is not merely individual but socially oriented as well. We want to spread good energy to others, creating a chain of goodness.
#16 Now That's A Real Father
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#17 Teachers Like This
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#18 Iranian Teacher Drives To The Village To Teach His Only Student In There, Using His Car As A Whiteboard
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
The contrast effect is responsible, in large part, for how wholesome content is so appealing. In an environment that is saturated with conflict, crisis, and controversy, truly positive content is a beacon of light. The incessant pounding of negative news produces what psychologists refer to as "emotional exhaustion," and wholesome content reads like an oasis in a desert of outrage and worry.
#19 Moms Sticking Together
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#20 Brother Makes A Dinosaur Watermelon Cake For His Nephew With Food Allergies
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#21 My 1.5yr Old Son And 14yr Old Cat Had A Moment This Morning
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
Wholesome content also fills our need for actual human connection in the increasingly digital era. A far cry from the performative quality of so much of social media content, wholesome moments feel like the genuine article and unscripted. They remind us back to the plain human capacity for kindliness, generosity, and love, something that can feel shortchanged if we're continually being subjected to the worst of humanity's actions online.
#22 Waited Forty Years For This
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#23 This Picture Makes My Heart Sing A Happy Song!
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#24 What An Awesome Grandma
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From a neurologic perspective, viewing positive material does actually rewire us to be healthier mentally. The way they have social media set up is actually brilliant, because it gets us scrolling, and it gives us instant hits of dopamine. And that feels good. It's like d***s. It's like chocolate. It's like hearing your favorite song. It's that instant rush. While this explains the addictive nature of social media as a whole, wholesome content provides a more healthful form of that same hit of dopamine, one that encourages us rather than sucking us dry.
#25 Every Job Is Valid!
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#26 I Hope This Tradition Never Stops
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#27 This Truck Driver
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The timing of wholesome content's popularity is not an accident. After decades of political polarization, worldwide crises, and social media venom, people are suffering from what researchers term "digital fatigue" and "outrage exhaustion." Wholesome content provides relief from this perpetual state of engagement, offering the mental version of a comforting hug when we most need it.
#28 There Is No Such Thing As A Stupid Question
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#29 Working People Are My People!
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#30 12 Followers, But A Whole Internet Of Support
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There is a little bit of nostalgia and safety involved in wholesome content, too. It makes us remember the good old days, childhood innocence, or fundamental human values that feel ageless and reassuring. In a world that is so fast-changing that everything feels like it's hanging in the balance, wholesome content provides a steadying influence for good old-fashioned human goodness transcending political, cultural, or generational boundaries.
#31 Anyone Can Be Tired. No Prerequisites
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#32 A Teacher's Hope Is That Students Have The Most Options In Life
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#33 Their Dog Hasn’t Eaten Well Since They Brought Their Baby Home
Dog Kept Taking Food Into The Living Room And Leaving It There. Someone Suggested The Dog Might Be Worried The Baby Isn’t Visibly Eating, So Is “Feeding” The Baby. They Tried Giving The Baby A Bowl Of Food At The Same Time. It Worked!
Image credits: Beauty Of Planet Earth
#34 Protect Him At All Costs
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#35 Special Delivery
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#36 These Two Ladies Built A Table Over The Gap In Their Balconies So They Could Eat Together
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#37 Our City Is In Lockdown And Someone Did This To Help The Stray Dogs
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#38 Kenyan Science Teacher Crowned Best Teacher In The World
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#39 He's Got A Proud Father
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#40 Forever Dancing
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#41 Best Mom Award?
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#42 I Jokingly Asked My Mom To Knit A Sweater For My Cat. She Took It Seriously, And Actually Did It
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#43 My Niece And Her Cat Tiger 🙂
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#44 My Dog Loves My Daughter. Daughter Still Unsure About Dog
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#45 Always Love A Good Dog Walk Story
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#46 Star Wars Is For Everyone
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#47 Found Him Like This This Morning. Poor Lil Legs Are Deflated
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#48 Mother Who Have Nothing, But Always Gives Everything 💕
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#49 11/10 Teacher
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#50 Teacher Being A Hero
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