My opinion means nothing

Like (I presume) a lot of you, I spend a lot of time reading various car-related websites. For many years, I was an avid commenter. I've recently stopped, and I'd like to tell you why. Not that my opinion matters (haha!) but I'm going to tell you anyhow.

I think people make comments for one of two reasons:

a) to prove they are smarter and/or more knowledgeable that the post's author or the other commenters.

b) to prove that they are more well-reasoned or insightful than the author or other commenters.

Either way, most comments are not much more than a self-serving ego boost, mine included.

Last summer, I worked on a play called "The Time of Your Life" by William Saroyan. The play was written in, and set in, 1939. From this play comes the following line:

McCarthy: “The thing to do is have more magazines. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Print everything they write, so they believe they’re immortal. That way keep them from going haywire.”

I believe Saroyan predicted the Internet. In 1939.

Commenting on the Internet isn't much more than a tool to prove one's worth to one's self. To prove that you matter. To prove that people care about what you have to say.

It's a drug. If people think they have value, they are less likely to "go haywire".

Is that the intentional purpose of the Internet? I can't say, but it certainly seems to be an outcome, intentional or not.

So I'm done. I'm done because I've realized that my personal sense of self-worth is not, and should not, be derived from whether or not other people value what I have to say.

I think the only differences between commenting online and talking to people IRL are that it's easier to find groups of people who share common interests online, it gives you an opportunity to think more carefully about what you're about to say, and it's often easier to get away with being a jackass online which is why many sites and forums are infested with trolls. The places I comment online have good systems for keeping them under control. For example, Slashdot has the peer-based moderation system, and GRM has the patio

Stop trying to prove how berkeleying smart you are with your dumb post about how posting is for dumb people trying to feel smart!

Isn't all that fundamentally true for almost all human interaction? Why talk to anybody, then?

Figured most people post on forums to ask a question, answer a question, share an experience, share cool/funny/crazy stuff, or to support a topic. Then there are the trolls and naysayers. Never have I thought I'd gain any self-worth from the internet though. But, good on you Evan for having more self-worth than us who are still commenting

I'm just here for the dick swinging contest.

I only comment on imgur for the fake internet points.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Id post my opinion about that cat, but Im smarter and more well reasoned than all of that.

Also, I couldn't love GRM the magazine or the website more, and believe me, I don't like to be the P.C police or anything or the guy who has a problem with everything thing, but I do have a problem with this... I find it a bit offensive that you use terms like “Comments" and "Opinions" for your little descriptions or whatever in the discussions. I myself do not make self-righteous, self-important posts, but I feel sensitivity for people who do, as I am a student living among them, and my Girlfriend is pursuing her masters in the field.

These terms although I'm pretty sure are not even real words, are obviously meant to resemble the words used to describe pretentious forum posts, and it appears that they are used on these boards in a joking sense which, as I view it, makes light of people who smell like a Summers Eve.

I like telling stories, and I like hearing people's first hand accounts and experiences. If you can back up an opinion with relevant experience, I don't find that to be egotistical.

What I've noticed is that more and more people are using the internet to share their opinions, but only a small portion of the general populace is using the internet to share their experiences and/or knowledge.

If every home improvement site stopped sharing their opinion, we wouldn't get the wide variety of experiences necessary to develop improved techniques.

Likewise, when we start talking politics, society and culture, we tend to share our opinions a bit too readily.

I'm pretty sure I should not comment on this.

Well, I agree that posting does feel like lending your professional opinion (and lending an opinion does make you feel valuable because you are adding value to others lives). But poster and reader have to both remember the market value of said internet opinions.

I've found my original opinions are far more valuable to people several years after the fact, as time usually proves me correct.

Exceptions being anything I find completely and utterly pointless and stupid and believe no person with half a brain cell would ever spend a cent on. As well as the Facebook IPO, because who ever would have thought Zuck was smart enough to short his own IPO.

SVreX said: I'm pretty sure I should not comment on this.

You are wrong. Please comment.

In reply to 4cylndrfury:

This isn't the first time you have posted that, is it?

In reply to spitfirebill:

That is one of the ongoing GRM specific jokes...

Well Played 4cylndrfury! Well played.

This is the part where Clarence the angel shows George Bailey the contributions he's made to his community by allowing him a glimpse of what life for all would be like without him. Sometimes one man's bombast is another man's beta. You cannot be the judge of the true worth of the stuff you write. The rest of us will take what we need from it or interpret it through our own filters or just enjoy it.

It would be a shame to stop posting because you think your posts have no value or you ascribe a self-serving motivation to everything you write. Let's say you tell your small child not to grab the frying pan handle off the stove because they can pull the hot pan down on themselves. You might feel a sense of satisfaction having a true adult moment but your kid doesn't get burnt either. If you think about it, there's value in your expressed thoughts for both of you.

Bye

Let them eat cake.

wvumtnbkr wrote: In reply to spitfirebill: That is one of the ongoing GRM specific jokes... Well Played 4cylndrfury! Well played.

Yeah, this. I think the original post had something to do with people using mental retardation as comedy...or something. It was years ago. Its like an internet Mad Libs. It can be made to suit any situation, and it almost always fits.

I just come here to troll for Say What.

Worthless opinions are why message boards exist.

Isn't that how you learn stuff though? By asking for information or advice from people that know more than you? I don't care if the people who know more than me about whatever are stroking their own ego by telling me about whatever, that's their problem.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

this. If I (or anyone for that matter) learns something from it, how is that bad? Granted, a lot of times the only thing we learn is that the poster is a pompous a-hole. But its still something we learned.

OK. I like to be helpful and also like to troll, which I think most do. And I've learned tons from many different forums. If you don't feel you don't have anything to offer.

Why even make the thread?

This is like when people go and do the "I'm deleting some friends" or "I'm deactivating my Facebook" and make a big deal to get attention.

Just do it. No one cares.

wvumtnbkr wrote: In reply to spitfirebill: That is one of the ongoing GRM specific jokes... Well Played 4cylndrfury! Well played.

I knew it was familiar.