Internet discourse happens everywhere; wherever you go on the net, whether you like it or not, it can and will find you. There is no escape. But there is a way. What is that? Ignore it! Especially when it comes to games.
For example, sites like Twitter make it way too easy for pretty much everyone to endlessly blab about the insignificant problem that’s been bugging them for all of five minutes. Ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point I’m making about internet discourse. Seeing those numbers go up one after another is a shortcut to your brain’s pleasure system.
Then, whenever a new video game is released, it’s almost guaranteed that an account with thousands of followers will say, “Hey, maybe this game isn’t that good.” Thankfully, unless your friends are complete jerks, they’ll at least hear your opinion on a game and reply with something interesting, which is way better than a phone screen that makes you feel worse the more you use it.
But, hey, is all this gripping just another example of an old man yelling at a cloud? Well, not exactly… Substantial, well-thought-out research tells us our phones do more harm than good. Some of it even comes from The National Institue of Health. So, that right there has to support my point.
To be less serious about this kind of stuff, though, playing the latest From Software or Nintendo title without paying too much attention to whatever your favourite popular game critic is saying can, in turn, help you enjoy that game even more and protect you from spoilers. Plus, if you play it with a friend, the two of you might even come up with your stories and be able to share that story for as long as you know each other.
There are so many benefits to taking breaks from social media, and I can personally say that it’s helped me enjoy my favourite games even more, especially when fake opinions aren’t always genuine. Because, let’s be real, do you really think those engagement-farming tweets or copy-and-paste Reddit posts are in any way of good faith? No, they’re not. They’re just like that so some faceless person can laugh at all those addicting numbers and angry replies.
Yeah, the internet can be a scary place, but it’s not all bad. Whether you fully realize it or not, the World Wide Web might be just as important as the wheel in terms of human innovation. Being able to talk to your friend who lives thousands of miles away with almost no delay is amazing, and it’s wild that it works so well. Plus, there is something cathartic about sharing your thoughts with an audience while being free from retaliation if this one-sided conversation occurred in person — I should know.
So, while internet discourse isn’t the worst thing in the world, there’s also not much to love about it, either…
