I don’t get the pride with which some people say “I don’t like [insert popular tv show/band/movie here]!” When someone puts this out in the internet I imagine them sitting at their computer, raising their fist in the air as they click the button that sends their opinion out to the world. Then they sit back and wait for the backlash, smugly appraising every reaction while seeing themselves as a rebel, a renegade, someone to be reckoned with.
When I say I don’t like something or don’t get the appeal of something - be it The Office or Will Ferrel or Lady GaGa or deep dish pizza - I’m questioning myself. I’m wondering why I don’t like or get what everyone else sees as something of quality. I don’t feel smug about not enjoying The Office. I feel like I’m missing out on something. Take Modern Family, for instance. I watched the first few episodes of the first season and liked it enough to buy the whole season. The farther into it I got, the more I hated it. Every character grated on my nerves. But then I’d see people talk about it, how it’s one of the best written shows on television with such a great cast and it makes me wonder about my taste, my cynicism, my ability to get nuanced humor.
It’s the same with comedians or fast food joints or musicians. I really enjoy reading what everyone has to say about the things I don’t like or get because it makes me understand at least why you enjoy it and helps me to try to find things about it to like or appreciate, or at least appreciate the reasons why you enjoy it. Which is why I don’t get when a bunch of people are talking/posting/tweeting about their great enjoyment of a particular thing and someone just has to chime in with “I don’t like that thing” in a triumphant sort of way. They don’t explain, they don’t say why they don’t like it, they don’t add anything to the conversation except an air of smug negativity.
Just one of those little things that irk me.
Less smug negativity, more conversation.
Absolutely. Go hate stuff in private, contrarians, because I don’t want to hear about it.
(Source: openareas)
