The rise of the (wrong) opinion

June 9, 2010 Chilling_Silence Personal Rantings

The advent of the internet has meant that the transfer of information happens almost instantly. Emails exchanged, businesses updated, news crosses the globe in seconds, more people can work from home, global offices are brought together. It’s a beautiful thing.

The flip side is that it has also increased the amount of people who are “being heard”. That in itself is not a bad thing at all, in my opinion, however the problem lies in the fact that people state their opinion as fact.

Recently I joined a Facebook group for John Key. I figure, what better way to stay informed about this countries political news? I was shocked to see just how many mis-informed people were screaming all over the place, usually with some of the worst grammar or spelling you can possibly imagine. Then, aside from them stating their mis-informed opinions as fact, there was this tone in so many posts that the person was right, and simply not interested in listening to what anybody else had to say.

So why is having an opinion a bad thing?

Granted, you’re reading the blog right now of a similar person. I very frequently get worked up about issues, however I would also like to believe I’m slightly different. I (would hope that I) look at the “story” from more than one angle, that I’m educated about the topic I’m discussing and providing my opinion on  (Or if I’m not educated I’m asking questions so I can become educated), and I’m also happy to be corrected in the instance I’m proven wrong, or rather that somebody else is proven more “right” than I am.

The issue I see is when people state their opinion as fact, I can think of a couple of examples to go along with this:

1) On a technology forum I’m a member of, there is a regular poster who is relatively well-respected amongst the other regulars. This person is generally quite knowledgeable, however when this well-respected member is unsure about something, he doesn’t say.
We get fact mixed up with opinion, and unfortunately for this character, when he states an opinion on a subject he’s not informed about, it usually misses the mark, badly. This can be disastrous if you’ve asked for technical help, and somebody is telling you the wrong thing!
Imagine going to your mechanic, asking what sort of oil should go in your car, and they say “Well it’s a Hybrid card, so you could just put water into it instead of oil”. How much damage could that then cause if you happen to do as instructed. Better still, what if you go home and before doing-so tell your friends on Facebook or Twitter about this great new way to save money by using water in your engine instead of oil, and because of the way social networking works, you start this domino effect of people who decide to try it. Imagine now your mechanic tells you “Look mate I’m not entirely sure, I don’t often work on Hybrids. What I would guess you can use water, because of this other factor here. However, I’m just taking a guess, you should get a second opinion”. How much more would you respect your mechanic for being honest with you, and admitting “Hey I’m only human and my experience in the field ends here”.

2) When the masses get to have an opinion, such as I’ve recently seen on the Vector Fibre website. People are asked to have their say as they vote “Should we get Fibre to the door”. The problem is that roughly 9/10 of the things people state are grossly mis-informed, yet they state them as fact. Here’s a prime example:

I highly support Fibre as Copper offers limited gaming network capabilities. Fibre provides much faster connection so less lag during games such as Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2. With my current connection, I tend to lose connection often and whenever I can play without losing connection it’s very slow.

Jordan – Student

Sorry Jordan, you’re wrong. There’s nothing wrong with Coppers gaming capabilities. High-speed doesn’t equate to less latency. Latency is quite likely affected by a myriad of other things, especially when playing internationally. When playing nationally, I can frequently get 10 millisecond ping times, so data takes 10 milliseconds to get from my computer, across New Zealand to the gaming server, and back again. I’m on Telecom Big Time, and not on an upgraded roadside Cabinet.

Lets look at the next down the list:

For faster access to the internet. no need to wait for webpages to load .

Miranti – University Student

Sorry Miranti, Fibre doesn’t mean you’ll have instant web sites any more than ADSL does. Fibre is literally the difference between half a second vs 1 second for a website to display, due to varying technical reasons I won’t go into. If you’ve got “slow” websites, then get yourself a full-speed broadband plan, and fix your PC, don’t blame ADSL.

Because I’m on a roll, lets have a look at one last post on the Vector Fibre comments page:

Because it will bring us closer to the rest of the world

Robert – Student

Hi Robert, you would be talking about the likes of England right? Where the Govt has just proposed a similar scheme to our Govt to provide broadband to homes? Except they’ve got a time-frame similar to what Telecom Chorus in NZ have set, the end of 2011? Telecom Chorus in NZ have the goal of 10-20Mbps, with the current average being around 14-16Mbps I believe at the time of writing. Do you know how incredibly fast the English Govt is dedicated to bringing to their country? 1Mbps. That’s right, just 1 megabit. Sounds like a step backwards to me, but sure thing, if that’s what you really want?

So as you can see it’s all too easy for people to state opinion as fact. Of the 25 comments on that page, just two were “on the money”! One was from a “Software as a Service” provider, who has created web applications, and the other was just a generic comment about technology improving that was more a statement was “not wrong” than it was “correct”.

That’s a lot of mis-informed people having “their say” about something they clearly know nothing about!

Is this a bad thing?

I’m all for the right to an opinion, as you can no doubt tell I have a very strong opinion on specific topics. I regularly state my opinion as fact, usually because it’s something I’m well-informed about.

Because I like scenarios, I’ll ask you this: Can you imagine asking your mechanic for advice on renovating your bathroom? Sure your mechanic may have done their own home renovations here and there, but at the end of the day their advice doesn’t supersede advice that you can get from somebody else such as a qualified and well-educated bathroom specialist, nor does it really make the mechanic qualified to make comments about how the Govt should invest in fixing up “leaky homes” does it? The problem is tracking down these bathroom specialists because they are so rare.

Food for thought

So how do we wade through all these varying opinions, many of which are obviously grossly mis-informed and half the time downright incorrect?

How do we know when we are “well informed” on a topic, or educated about something? I feel the state of broadband in NZ (And fibre to the home) is something I’m well informed on, because even though I have no qualifications, I live and breath it for 10+ hours a day. What about a Uni graduate who’s just done Computer Science, but never seen broadband outside of their own home connection?

How do we battle the rapidly growing trend that because people have learned to use a keyboard, they suddenly their human right to state their opinion as fact to all who hear?

How do you tell the difference between fact and opinion? Is it the number of page views, or “likes” that a Facebook status update gets?

How do you educate the masses? Showing them “Hey you were close, but still off the mark” as well as “Dude you’re totally wrong, reality is over there at the opposite end of the scale”.

Is there a way we can simply shut up people who have no idea, yet rant on and on like they do? Going back to John Keys Facebook page, the amount of negative comments on there from people, again most of whom are grossly mis-informed, is terrible? What happened to the days when we built each other up, both as a country, and as the human race?

Is there a way we can educate people, and to show them it’s OK to have an opinion, that it’s not what was said, but rather how it was said?

Is there a way we can build up a spirit of encouragement, where we get alongside people and build them up, rather than pulling them down at the first chance we get? New Zealand is fast discovering it actually deserves the badge of “Suffering from Tall Poppy Syndrome“, but I fail to see why so many people wear that badge proudly.

Is it possible to show people that it is possible to have something constructive to say, rather than just destructive comments?

Can people be shown that just because they have a keyboard and a monitor to hide behind, that doesn’t negate the fact that there are real people at the other end of the internet connection?

I’m reminded of the phrase “It is better to let somebody think a fool of you, than to open your mouth and prove it so“.

As always I’m more than interested in any feedback or comments that people have around this topic, please feel free to have your say, though constructive comments are appreciated over all else.

Broadband, Facts, Fibre to the Home, Government, Have your say,