i’m very wary of the idea of “avoiding other people’s negativity”

if by “people’s negativity” you mean their projecting or attempting to transfer their own suffering onto others, or constant catastrophizing, then yeah, that’s usually best avoided

but if when you say that you avoid other people’s negativity you mean their normal expressions of grief, anger, and fear, or narratives of their own suffering, then what you’re doing is avoiding their full humanity, and likely your own as well