From time to time, and always against my better judgment (which clearly is the smallest part of my overall judgment), I read the “Comments” section of articles on the online versions of various news sources I frequent.
Naturally, the opinions expressed routinely make my blood boil, so it’s puzzling as to why I subject myself to them. Do I really need to know what some guy in his underpants thinks about Black Lives Matters or bicycle infrastructure?
I know I should talk, given that I’m running my own mouth here, but it does seem strange to me that so many people feel sop compelled to post their two cents about so many issues and articles. It’s not as if it makes any difference, or indeed, that anyone really cares. Do people posting their comments really imagine that they are fostering understanding or contributing in any meaningful way to the public discourse?
I’m just glad that there weren’t online comments throughout the course of history. Couldn’t you just see people responding to the Gettysburg Address, for instance, with observations like the term “four score and seven” being too fancy or the claim that the “government or the people, by the people, and for the people” SHOULD perish from the face of the earth?
The comments that really chap my ass are the ones that attempt to personalize world events like when, in response to say, a terrorist act in France, the commenter writes that they visited France just last year and were shocked to see armed guards outside the Louvre. Or the person who commented on an article about Hurricane Harvey that it was sunny and clear outside their kitchen window.
Obviously, the only person who cares what the commenters think are the commenters themselves—and perhaps, sometimes, someone like me, who against their better judgment, reads those comments and gets all burned up about them.
The solution is simple: stop reading the comments, no further comment required.
Naturally, the opinions expressed routinely make my blood boil, so it’s puzzling as to why I subject myself to them. Do I really need to know what some guy in his underpants thinks about Black Lives Matters or bicycle infrastructure?
I know I should talk, given that I’m running my own mouth here, but it does seem strange to me that so many people feel sop compelled to post their two cents about so many issues and articles. It’s not as if it makes any difference, or indeed, that anyone really cares. Do people posting their comments really imagine that they are fostering understanding or contributing in any meaningful way to the public discourse?
I’m just glad that there weren’t online comments throughout the course of history. Couldn’t you just see people responding to the Gettysburg Address, for instance, with observations like the term “four score and seven” being too fancy or the claim that the “government or the people, by the people, and for the people” SHOULD perish from the face of the earth?
The comments that really chap my ass are the ones that attempt to personalize world events like when, in response to say, a terrorist act in France, the commenter writes that they visited France just last year and were shocked to see armed guards outside the Louvre. Or the person who commented on an article about Hurricane Harvey that it was sunny and clear outside their kitchen window.
Obviously, the only person who cares what the commenters think are the commenters themselves—and perhaps, sometimes, someone like me, who against their better judgment, reads those comments and gets all burned up about them.
The solution is simple: stop reading the comments, no further comment required.
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