Unpopular Opinions You Hold

[Collymore]

15 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

An opinion about opinions:

 

Quite possibly the most destructive result of the Internet and social media becoming ubiquitous is that it has encouraged almost everything to be a matter of opinion or debate - even those things that are clearly defined, need-to-be-acted-upon matters of fact. The advent of AI is only furthering this uncertainty.

 

Some things are not matters of debate. Treating them as such only ends badly, and harmfully. 

 

 

 

Are you talking about politics?  Conspiracy theories? Or just in general...

 

I'd argue technology can give you a false sense of opinion when the majority of people don't care or have an opinion though.

 

It's like where you get a really niche hobby such as collecting garden snails - you're never going to come across a person who does this in life but if you set up a forum you'd get the thousands across the world all talking and having an opinion about it. 

 

 

 

[Sampson]

4 minutes ago, Collymore said:

 

Are you talking about politics?  Conspiracy theories? Or just in general...

 

I'd argue technology can give you a false sense of opinion when the majority of people don't care or have an opinion though.

 

It's like where you get a really niche hobby such as collecting garden snails - you're never going to come across a person who does this in life but if you set up a forum you'd get the thousands across the world all talking and having an opinion about it. 

 

 

 

I think I agree with your final paragraph but I think that does seep out into everyday conversation though and you do find a lot of people have opinions about things they previously wouldn't have cared about 25 years ago.

 

It's not just politics or conspiracy theories, it's art, culture, entertainment, sport, hobbies - everyone is a snob or says "ahhh... but I heard this book is bad" when they haven't read it or "this book I briefly started,  didn't have time to finish so put down, I have to go out my way to make it my personality to have a go at people who like that book" these days in a way they weren't 25 years ago.

 

Everyone has opinions about things they haven't or barely read/watched/played/partaken in and they are weirdly bullish about those opinions. I'm not saying I'm exempt from this btw, it's just part of the way people talk to each other nowadays. 

[leicsmac]

9 minutes ago, Collymore said:

 

Are you talking about politics?  Conspiracy theories? Or just in general...

 

I'd argue technology can give you a false sense of opinion when the majority of people don't care or have an opinion though.

 

It's like where you get a really niche hobby such as collecting garden snails - you're never going to come across a person who does this in life but if you set up a forum you'd get the thousands across the world all talking and having an opinion about it. 

 

 

 

I'm talking mostly in general, but to refer to a key critical area as an example, scientific matters that are empirically proven becoming matters of opinion among people, which then leads to policy and action based on such things being treated as opinion rather than fact. 

 

The amount of harm caused by people choosing to ignore scientific fact in areas where it really matters has resulted in a level of harm that is already massive, and if taken into the future, may become absolute and incalculable. 

 

The "death of expertise", and the reduction of fact to matters of opinion, harms everyone.

 

The Internet has done a great thing in bringing a lot of like minded people together. This, however, is the dark side of it.