Do you hate something because its popular?

[unicron44]

I tend to hate things that are popular because I hate being constantly bombarded with mentions to it.

Take for example Justin Bieber: He appeals mainly to teenage girls and I always has to hear about how music is so terrible today because of him. FYI pop music has always been fucking terrible, don't let nostalgia blind you.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

Hate is a very strong word. If something's popular, it's making lots of people happy. I may not like Justin Bieber's music, and I may not enjoy stuff like 50 Shades of Grey, but other people do. I don't see why people hate them just because lots of other people like them.

 

[Yopaz]

I dislike most main stream pop music. Not because it's popular, it's just not my kind of music. I also don't like metal. I reserve hate to things that actually matter. Such as people on the internet discussing semantics when they can't make a point... I'm not too serious about that one.

The problem with things being popular and us not liking them is simple. Let's say my friend took me out to eat Indian food and I didn't like it (I absolutely love Indian food so this is all a thought experiment), that wouldn't be a big deal. I had tested it out and tried it. Now let's say my friend decided to take me out for Indian food every day despite that I didn't like it. I would soon start hating both Indian food and my friend for this.

That's what Justin Bieber does to people. A lot of people like his music so it plays on the radio and people listen to it. Those of us who doesn't like it have to listen to it over and over. Dislike turns to hate. At least this is my hypothesis, we might just be entirely too free with using the word hate for that matter.

 

[excalipoor]

Phoebe Buffay taught me not to put that shit out into the universe.

 

[Reginald the Butler]

I don't think that people hate something just because it's popular. It's more that they hate how it's become popular. For example, I can't stand that "Jersey Shore" show, partly because I cannot figure out how it became so damn popular (but mostly because it's just a terrible show).

 

[Inbar Fink]

"if you go against the stream just becuase it's against the stream, it means the stream still decide where you're going"

 

[RJ Dalton]

I don't hate things because they're popular, I hate things because they suck. Their popularity makes me hate people.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

Hate is such a strong word. I've thought that stuff is stupid, but I don't hate stuff

Oh, so you don't hate Hitler? You support Hitler? HEY, EVERYBODY, THIS GUY'S A NAZI! YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT--A NAZI! A BIG, FAT NAZI! What about cancer? You don't hate cancer? You like cancer? HEY, EVERYBODY, THIS HITLER LOVER LIKES CANCER AND HOPES YOU ALL DIE FROM IT!

Spoiler

But seriously, I agree. Hate's too strong a word for these things (except for cancer & Hitler). I wouldn't say I dislike anything because it's popular. I think that's bad practice for human beings. If I ever find that I dislike something based on nothing else other than that it's popular, I force myself to check it out. Sometimes I go in and away thinking it's stupid, but sometimes I become a fan. Popular things are popular for a reason, after all.

FYI pop music has always been fucking terrible, don't let nostalgia blind you.

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I accept your apology.

 

[The Lunatic]

I don't so much dislike anything for the sole reason of it being popular.

But, I do dislike the fact certain things I dislike are popular.

 

[Radelaide]

It generally happens with music because of overexposure.

 

[Matt King]

well i can hate things for being popular, but only things i would have hated anyway for example i hate twilight because it has gotten popular which it really shouldn't have

 

[Signa]

I've always said when something is popular, it earns higher scrutiny. If it doesn't live up to the hype under that scrutiny, then it does deserve to be labeled as "sucks."

This is a symptom of mainstream media unfortunately. Games like Halo and CoD are rather dumb games, but they attract a crowd. That dumb crowd is also very profitable, so the habits they perpetrate start affecting the whole gaming industry. That makes me hate them even more, because these extremely average games are affecting the things that I like. And I don't like merely average things generally.

I do like to point out that while a mainstream story, the Harry Potter series does stand up to scrutiny. It's not without its flaws, but I really like the books, despite being cold towards the movies. I actually didn't read any of the books until after the third movie, so I wasn't biased against them because of feeling the books were superior. I just love a lot of fantasy, and the first two HP movies were merely passable, while some of the other fantasy books I've read are far more deserving of movie adaptations.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I don't hate things because they're popular, it just so happens that I hate things that happen to be popular.

 

[Stasisesque]

Everyone harping on about how awful and offensive 50 Shades of Grey is, try reading The Story of O. I dare you.

 

[godofslack]

I wouldn't call it hate, more disappointment of the fact that it's popular.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

No, in fact, I believe that practically no-one hates things purely because they're popular. Often it's because they are undeservedly popular, or because they have such saturation that what could have been a dislike -> ignore reaction becomes hate through continued exposure. To that end, I think the notion that some people just hate because it's popular is just a way of dismissing someone's opinion, same as the words "hater" and "fanboy".

Here's 98 cents change.

 

[Entitled]

The problem with hating things that are popular, is that usually even the most popular things are only liked by the largest minority, but not by a supermajority.

So even if I'm hating something popular, I'm really just going along with an even more popular group that is hating it.

There is a Twilight fandom, but everyone else hates Twilight. There are Valve fanboys, but everyone else loves to point out how biased those are. There are bronies, but everyone else either hates bronies, or at least tries sound impartial by unnecessarily bringing up how "some bronies" are too obsessive.

 

[Codeknight]

You know, I have hated something because it was (and still is) popular. Though I didn't really hate it because specifically because it was popular, but rather the consequences of it's popularity.

In order to to fully understand why you need to know this: I *LOVED* custom maps in Warcraft 3. Such an abundance of creativity and new ideas. Not all of them where great but there where so many good maps that anyone could find something they liked.

The thing I hate? DOTA. I know, people like it for a reason, it's well balanced and fun to play and all that, but it all but killed every other custom map. The last month I rarely saw anything that wasn't DOTA in the game list and my average wait time to get just a few people to make the map I was hosting playable took upwards of an hour. Haven't played in a loooong time because of that.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't hate something because it's popular, but sometimes one can get mighty sick of constant exposure.

Take Portal - I fucking loved that game, but the unending stream of references and cake jokes drove me to hate it for the longest time.

 

[Galletea]

I think the problem is that when something isn't really very good, you can ignore it.
However when that same something is popular, like twilight, then it's very difficult to ignore, so it makes people frustrated.

That is the only reason I can think of for why I hate certain things quite as much as I do. Like the Avengers film, and Twilight, and Half Life, and Gears...and a whole lot of other stuff.