7 ms·

Personally I'm guilty of often seeking out comments before or soon after viewing an article or video online. As social creatures I think its reasonable to want,

Personally I'm guilty of often seeking out comments before or soon after viewing an article or video online. As social creatures I think its reasonable to want, even need, others opinions. The effects of receiving these opinions may not always be positive, but I think they are necessary. Pragmatically, comment sections can have bots, ads, instigators. I think there is a better solution than outright getting rid of online discussion. There's room here for innovation (Not even technical innovation, I think there's low hanging fruit here in terms of comment section design)

prepend 9y ago
Similarly, I use comments as a quick screen to filter through the PR/targeted journalism of stories. Not perfect and will eventually stop working as media companies wise up. Similarly, I will frequently check Wikipedia before the company/film/whatever. Flaws, but frequently better than official channels.
- gurkendoktor 9y ago
  It doesn't even have to be targeted journalism, sometimes people write junk because they make mistakes or aren't aware of counter-arguments...not even scientific papers are safe from this. Cunningham's Law[1] to the rescue :) I can feel that hostile internet comments take a toll on my overall happiness, but I don't want to be ignorant of valid counter-arguments to the content I read. [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law