Why does no one like to talk about stuff anymore? It seems the internet has changed what was once discussion and dissection into and endless mishmash of yelling, memes, and self congratulatory nonsense. I’m not even just talking about politics or anything, I even mean on a smaller scale, such as movies for example. People don’t wanna talk about filmmaking, acting, or even consider those things. They just wanna yell about how awesome something is without articulating their opinions at all.

For example upon viewing the new Batman V. Superman trailer I immediately thought “This looks pretty bad, the acting looks extremely awkward and the trailer makes the movie look convoluted and overstuffed”. I wanted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt however so I searched for counter opinions just to expand my mind a bit and see why others were so excited for this new movie. I was greeted with an endless string of “oh my gosh I can’t even!” and “this trailer made my head explode”. No one was talking about the trailer, anyone who tried to bring up a negative point was immediately drowned out by people yelling at them for disagreeing with no other reason than “Batman is awesome!!!!”

Now I know I probably sound rather elitist and pretentious but I’m not trying to look down on others for enjoying something. Rather I’m saying that we need to talk about the things we love rather than just making a bunch of memes as fun as that is. The jokes and celebration are important too but they’re drowning out talking about  the reasons people like something to begin with. Dissecting why we enjoy things is really valid I think, it helps us to discover things about ourselves we never thought of before! It helps us to develop our tastes so that we can become more openminded of art and entertainment from other cultures and other points of views which results in a more broad understanding of the world, art, and ourselves.  

We need to start having discussions about politics, art, culture, and life that aren’t so simplistic and one sided. We can gain so much just from talking with each other! I’ve certainly learned a lot more about the world from talking about people who disagree with me in a meaningful way than I have having discussions with people who do agree with me. So be brave and have that discussion with someone. Someone on the other side of the political spectrum, if you’re religious like myself talk to an atheist or vice versa, talk with someone with a different taste in music or movies, someone with a different philosophy, someone of a different race/ethnicity  and/or background or even GASP… someone of the opposite gender (I know it’s difficult!). I think you will gain a lot from it, I know I sure have.