Sideline Commentary

I am a big Internet person; there is an unlimited amount of information and entertainment. Almost every bit of information that you need and want is within your fingertips, and you can watch some obscure 80s television ads on YouTube (no, I didn’t watch them).

Aside from researching information about otters for biology class, forcing myself to watch that horrible video(and song) “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne (that’s got to be a song written for 13 year olds, and I only watched it after hearing some mumbling about it), and reading some weird blogs, an integral part of my venture is reading comments that people leave at various sites (this includes message boards to blogs).
One thing that’s great (or sometimes bad) about the Internet is that it brings out all kinds of people from all kinds of places. This is the clash o cultures, personalities, tastes, and views. Take a Rolling Stone article for example, whenever there’s a post about a modern star of choice, the commentaries below the article will bring out the best and the worst of everyone. This is actually the most entertaining and most frustrating part, you usually get a few laughs out of it, and there’s bound to be comments that make you want to spit at the person who wrote it. Take the above Avril Lavigne “Girlfriend” video on YouTube, there’s tons of comments on that thing. It ranges from “elle est troooo belle et jkiff tro sa chanson “, to “I <3 THIS VIDEO!!! IT ROCKS!!!!” to “that was the stupidest thing i have ever seen i thought the bitch was annoying before but now its just sad n the rest of you idiots who think avril is so punk you need to be shot in the face” and these are just a few of them.

Yes, I actually spent more time reading those than watching the video. There were a lot of times when I questioned my sanity after I found myself reading the comments time after time. I had nodded my head to plenty of them, yet more often than not I found myself frowning, or worse, being upset by it. There was always a sick feeling after some guy insulted your favorite band/singer/book/whatever.

But there’s a lesson that’s hidden in these brilliant, infantile, thorough, incoherent ramblings: no matter how great something is, there will be its haters, and no matter how atrocious something is, there will be its lovers. And more importantly, it’s hard, borderline impossible to change the views of some people.

I figured this out a few years ago when I was younger, and I sometimes have to constantly remind myself of this:
Your opinion sucks, and so does mine.

We all have our own opinions and views, and we need a venue of venting somewhere, and what’s better than the Internet? You may remain anonymous, take on a double life with a completely different personality, and throw out you opinion at any topic any time. I often see vicious slews and just complete assholes on the Internet giving out their view, and there’s a large population of them, and why is that? This is the time for them to shine. Everything seems to be boasted bigger and more malicious on the Internet because it allows people to be protected.
But really, does these comments that I see on message boards matters? Does it contribute to my benefit? Does opinions make something better or worse for you? And what is good or bad?

Of course, the “this sucks ass”, “they’re awesome” and “fuck you” are going their everlasting life on the Internet. I’ll continue reading comments and shake my head at the immature and iniquitous fucks that are clearly idiots, their opinions suck, and the funny thing is, my opinions suck too.