Why do people like to post about something/someone popular they consider overrated?

[highplainsdem]

19. Someone was snooty to you for asking where you could

catch a movie???

My concern about "back and forth" on what's worst or overrated is that inevitably it's belittling other people's taste. And it does often cause hard feelings, much more often than total disagreement on what's best does.

It can sometimes increase a feeling of group solidarity if people happen to agree on what's worst. It reinforces their feeling that their taste is superior to the nitwits who like what they think is worst.

But most of the time I see arguments and hurt feelings. I hear about the hurt feelings at times since even when I haven't been moderating, I'll have email contact with both sides.

I've asked the people in Music Appreciation, which I host, to please try to keep their negative opinions to themselves. People's taste in music is intensely personal, and if everyone who disagreed with whether a particular song is good decided to vent, every post would be buried in negative comments and arguments. And most people would simply give up on posting. Shyer newcomers would probably never post. There was at least one old thread there on "overrated" artists, and a number of the people responding seemed in shock that others bitterly disliked artists who were their favorites. And I couldn't help wondering if they just didn't post any music by those favorites after that, since they thought they'd be mocked for doing so. Sometimes it can take only one or two people trying to bully others out of saying they like a particular artist/actor/genre to shut down most discussion.

Threads on what people like, otoh, tend to open up discussions and make people feel their opinions and interests are welcome.