Friday, July 17, 2015

Our Obsession with Opinion

by J. Brown



We're obsessed with ourselves.

That's what previous generations thinks of us, and for the most part, they're probably right. My generation (Generation Y/ the Millenials/ whatever CNN uses to refer to us) is pretty vain. We created the selfie, the status update, and the Foursquare check-in. We've not only mastered the overshare, we've made it popular.

Most would look at this as simply a sign of the times, but I know better. I get that the generations before us might not have had Internet, but they weren't taking pictures of themselves with their Polaroids, either. They might not have had cell phones, but they didn't feel the need to outline their weekend and bore you with tedious details the following Monday. People have always had opinions, but they didn't always feel the need to share them. But those were simpler times. As technology became more complex, so too did our vanity. 

My generation's self-centeredness is perhaps best characterized by our infatuation with opinions. Over the past few years, it seems like the line between fact and opinion has become blurrier than it's ever been. You can't just be against gay marriage; it should be outlawed. You can't simply disagree with conservatives; they're bigots and should all be banned from Congress. You can't just be upset that Kendrick Lamar lost a Grammy to Macklemore; the entire Grammy academy must be racist. We as a generation have become quite fond of not only portraying our opinions as the right way of thinking, but actually getting upset with people for disagreeing with us.


Over the past year, I have seen numerous Facebook statuses in which people have actually written something to the effect of "I just unfriended a bunch of people because their opinions were too different than mine." Now, I can understand doing this if someone wrote something wildly offensive or insensitive, but where do we draw the line? I get that you might not want to associate yourself with people who have a negative (another opinion word, btw) way of thinking, but the slope that leads to your inner circle being homogeneous to the point of atrophy is a slippery one. In addition, the fact that anyone feels the need to announce that they've gotten rid of some Facebook friends is pretty ridiculous in itself, anyway; either they're trying to convince us that they have so many friends that they can afford to cut some off, or they're trying to convince us that we're lucky for "making the cut". The assumption that anyone cares about either of these outcomes is pretty delusional.

Further exemplifying my generation's self-obsession is our sheer exaggeration of every opinion that we have. With everyone constantly expressing their own opinions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, it has become blase to simply be another member in the faceless crowd of opinion-givers. You can't just like or dislike something; you have to either be entirely enamored or absolutely abhor it. I'm personally convinced that this is partially about vanity, but also due to the fact that most people just aren't very good at communicating. It's as if they feel that if they don't go over the top with their opinion, then people won't truly comprehend how passionate they are, because they don't have any better way of expressing themselves.

After the Charleston church shooting, I saw someone write on Twitter, "As a black person - how do you continue to get through the day? How do you find the will to smile, to laugh, knowing we're being hunted?" Nine people got killed in a supposed safe space, simply because they were Black. This isn't the first time innocent people were killed for their skin color, and these victims' names were added onto an enormous list of murder Black people that seems to grow longer every day. This dude was pissed, and I get that. I was pissed, too. Still, I found it a bit extreme to say that Black people have lost all reason to smile. Our people have been hunted and abused since the beginning of America, but even the slaves shared laughs. The guy who wrote this tweet probably thought he was being profound, but to me, it really just seemed that he didn't have a better way of expressing that he was just really, really upset. I called him out on it, and he blocked me. At least I tried.

Truth be told, I'm pretty opinionated myself, some might say to a fault. As I get older, though, I've begun to realize that people don't have to agree with me. I've wasted countless hours of my life trying to convince people to see things the way that I see them. Not only does this rarely work (because I'm usually arguing with generational peers who, as I've been explaining, are obsessed with their own opinions, too), it's also pretty pointless. There's nothing gained by getting people to agree with you. Furthermore, it's actually kind of disappointing when everyone agrees with you; your opinions are no longer unique, and then you're just like everyone else. Instead of trying to convince people to agree with us, we should probably enjoy the fact that people think differently than us. Those differences are what make us interesting. Not every difference has to be an argument, and that's something I'm working to convince myself of daily.

Another thing I've learned is that I don't have to have an opinion on everything. Whenever a polarizing event happens in the news or within pop culture, our generation has been programmed to believe that we have to choose a side. That's not true, though. It's OK to just be neutral sometimes. A perfect example is Caitlyn Jenner, who won the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPYs on Wednesday night. People took to social media to either explain why they were rooting for Jenner, or to elocute all the reasons why she didn't deserve the award. To be honest, though, I don't have an opinion on Caitlyn Jenner. I'm not proud of her for embracing her true self, and I don't feel like her receiving the award was a disgrace to ESPN. I don't really care either way. 

Maybe you think that makes me a bad person, and that's fine. You're entitled to your opinion, just like I'm entitled to not have one. It's OK if we disagree. At the end of the day, the only person who really cares about your opinion is you. Next time you're about to click the "Post" button, keep that in mind.

2 comments:

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  2. 100% articulated something that has been irking me for awhile. Whenever I want to know more about a controversial issue, I can read an article from both sides and understand each view point. It doesn't have to be THE WORLD IS ENDING at all times.

    I personally just try to be funny on social media. Except when it comes to Boston sports - YOU ALL MUST WORSHIP, BRADY.

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