Any advice for avoiding our "countering" negative people?

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Any advice for avoiding our "countering" negative people?

>Been in a slump for as long as I can remember
>Recently things are starting to look up for me
>Have some new hobbies, eating better, getting more exercise
>Deleted my social media, and am reading more

Now I'm starting to notice the people around me are not only negative, but there is some inherent quality to this negativity, where people try to bring you down. How do you respond to this in situations where you have to deal with negative people?

(Mostly negative coworkers who are complaining about our easy-mode job.)
Last night I had to carefully maneuver around three attempts from coworkers to start an argument with me over various topics. When it was obvious that I wasn't interested in entertaining them, they just went on to the next person to gossip and argue.

How do you deal with this sort of thing?