Poll: "They just hate it because it's popular."

[funguy2121]

Since you're reading this on an internet forum, it's probably safe to assume you've all encountered this particular phrase or some variation thereof.

It inevitably emerges when someone who enjoys a popular and/or successful product encounters someone who does not. Common examples include Avatar, Call of Duty and Harry Potter. The accusation is generally accompanied by the suggestion that the 'hater' is motivated by the desire to be an independently minded person who does not simply follow the crowd.

...

Really? I mean... really?

Does anyone actually do this? Because I find it a bit hard to swallow.

Seriously, I'm curious. Have you - yes, you - ever decided to hate something purely because other people like it?

Why are we talking as if it's even possible to decide to hate something?

Here. Let's try a little exercise. Now, when I say 'go,' I want you to start hating Scarlett Johansen, Martin Luther King and Christopher Nolan with all you've got.

Ready? Go!

Did it work?

Now, let's try it again, but this time I want you to totally fall in love with Halo, My Little Pony and Anime

(1)This makes no sense, and (2)I already am in love with MLP, (3)so you fail at life, the universe, and everything.

(1) I'm glad we agree! Seriously, read the very first line of my response that you've quoted.

(2) Sonuvahbitch, I knew you were going to say that.

(3) How will I withstand the onslaught of the holy trifecta of failure? You don't just sound like a jerk when you say something like that. You sound like both a nerd and a jerk.

...and back to (2) - sorry. Just had to mention that hearing things like "I'm in love with MLP" reminds me Patrick Swayze from Donnie Darko for some reason.

 

[Kinokohatake]

Things I hate that are popular-

1. Avatar

2. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

3. Twilight

4. Cats (The animal)

In all of these cases I have watched, read, or owned before forming my opinion. Before that I was just merely confused by the popularity. I will never say I dislike something without experiencing it. HATE CATS!

 

[The Coop]

I've come close, but it's not quite the same.

Over the years, I've heard and read a lot about Final Fantasy VII. Straight forward reviews, raving fanboys, praised as if it were both utter shit, and the second coming of Christ... all that and everything in-between. Do I hate the game after this? No. But I have absolutely no desire to play it. The game's been bashed and worshiped so much over the years, that I guess I'm simply sick of the game... yet I've never so much as seen the opening movie.

 

[Matt-Sama]

Probably have done, though I do not recall an exact example.

 

[IamQ]

In a way. When I saw Avatar, I thought it was an okay movie. 'Seen better, and 'seen worse.

Then everyone in the fucking world hyped it up as one of the best movies, and slowly I begun hating that movie, because I felt it got a fanbase that it didn't deserve.

 

[blankedboy]

Eh, no. I don't like alot of popular stuff, but that's because it's not to my tastes rather than because it's popular. I keep getting called a hipster because the most mainstream band I listen to is Tool, even though I really don't give a shit how popular something is, just how good it is.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

And I don't hate Twilight because it's popular. I hate it because it's stupid.

Right there. Twilight. That's a perfect example of a bad, overrated series. The prose is awkward, the plot is trite, and the characters intended to be the most sympathetic tend to end up being the least likable.

As for Avatar, I'm guessing it'd cause more controversy to say that it wasn't actually bad than to say that you hate it. Sure, the story was formulaic; somewhere between The Word For World Is Forest and "Call Me Joe." Yes, its main selling point was all the Wayne Barlowe art. But it entertained me, at least as much as movies ever do.

 

[Nanaki316]

Well it's not game related... unless you include the F1 games but I have a real love/hate thing going on with Sebastian Vettel and I'm getting really sick to death of him winning all the Grandprix's too. All of my friends think he's awesome.

Hmm... perhaps it's more of a love thing than I thought...

 

[Eofofo]

Honestly, I can try and say I haven't, but I've fallen victim to that. I thought the Hangover was O.K. until it got hyped, and I started to say it was bad.

 

[lllumpy]

I'm gunna quote yahtzee on this one
"Nothing ruins a good thing quite like knowing you share your opinions with mindless little tits"

 

[brinvixen]

I'm not ashamed to say that I've hated something because it was popular. For example, without having played it, I hated Halo. In my youth (haha, that's funny to say) I was obsessed with Sony and their Playstation consoles (still am) and believed that they were the ultimate gaming device. Then came the Xbox, a Playstation clone. Completely worthless in my opinion. But it sold like hotcakes. Why? HALO. In fact, I still hold true to the idea that the only reason Microsoft is able to compete in the console market is because they had Halo on their side to get the ball rolling (although, I think that with less venom attached to it than before). So I hated Halo, basically because it was popular. Never gave it a chance (nor the Xbox) and decided to write them off, purely because every other person around me was going "HUR! Xbox is da BOMB! Halo is da BOMB!".

Since then, I have played a game from the Halo series (Halo 3 to be exact), and found my opinion unchanged. I mean, I don't hate Halo like I did back then, but I still don't find it to be a game that would make me buy an Xbox. But good for those who enjoy it. There's enough room in the gaming industry for all of us.

Anyway, it happens. Sometimes things are popular, so they become annoying. Think of Twilight. If it wasn't so popular, it wouldn't be so painful. Most of the people who hate Twilight haven't seen the movies, or even read the books. They just hate it because they're sick of all the "Team Edward/ Team Jacob" hurrah. But, as someone who has read all the books and seen the movies, it's worth the hate. I promise.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Nope. I have reasons for all the things I hate.

 

[MasterMuffinMan]

For me, it was the Beatles. I got so fed up of everyone I knew going on about how they were the best band in existence and responsible for everything good to do with music, so I ended up hating them. It's not that I actually dislike them as a band, I just find that they're very overrated, and that led me to form a more negative opinion than I otherwise would have done.

 

[Trilby]

Some things that are popular are bad.
Socrates dislikes things that are bad.
Therefore Socrates dislikes popular things.

LOGIC!!!!!!"11111teh_one!!!!eleven!!!!111!!

 

[Tdc2182]

I have no doubt that people don't enjoy the Call of Duty games. The thing is, they end up completely despising it because it's popular, just like with everything that's popular.

I hate Twilight because it's popular. But you don't see my hating a movie like Dear John because it's not popular.

Sure, I don't like the movie, but I don't hate it because I believe it gets the proper amount of recognition it deserves.

 

[Tdc2182]

And I don't hate Twilight because it's popular. I hate it because it's stupid.

Right there. Twilight. That's a perfect example of a bad, overrated series. The prose is awkward, the plot is trite, and the characters intended to be the most sympathetic tend to end up being the least likable.

But you hate it because it is popular. Had you only heard of it in passing, you would have most likely disregarded it as something you were uninterested in. But because of the amount of love it gets from the fans of the series, the reaction from you is to over analyze the series and start to hate it. You hate it because of the attention it gets.

 

[BanthaFodder]

kinda... but I usually have other reasons to back it up.
take Inception for example. now I didn't HATE this movie, I just hated how everyone REACTED to it. all of the wannabe film-snobs were happily tounging the movie's balls, saying how "original" (it wasn't) and "deep" (it wasn't) it was. I didn't care about any of the characters (except for Michael Caine, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Arthur, they were kinda cool), I saw the "twist" coming a MILE away, the whole thing was just too overcomplicated, etc. It could have been a MUCH better movie if it focused less on being clever and more on being a movie. now there ARE some legitimately clever things about it (the "BUAAAAMMMM" music is the song they wake up to slowed down, the first letters of the main characters' names spells out DREAMS, etc.), but I thought it was just okay. not amazing, not terrible, just alright.
and yet, this perfectly adequate movie gets praised as the most amazing thing ever, and anyone who doesn't think so just "didn't get it".
THAT'S what pissed me off.

or Justin Bieber, as another example. his music is TERRIBLE. he is a spoiled BRAT. people have said this about him (he pissed off EVERYONE on the set of CSI, he was almost kicked off of an airplane for acting like a spoiled child, he donates NOTHING to Japan, and is still praised as this talented little angel, etc.). It's just annoying to me that standards of what is "good" have fallen so low nowadays.

so yeah, I've hated things for being popular, but I would hate them even if they weren't popular, so I feel it's not as much a dipshit-hipster-Hot Topic move on my part.

 

[Dastardly]

Seriously, I'm curious. Have you - yes, you - ever decided to hate something purely because other people like it?

There are plenty that do. It's far more common, though, for people to like something more because it isn't popular. It makes them feel like part of an exclusive club, or like they've found a secret diamond mine that everyone else missed. And then, when that thing becomes popular, they find reasons to abandon it or bash it as being "not the same."

As for me, I haven't found myself hating something for becoming popular. I have, however, hated the fact that some things are popular. Not hating the thing, per se, but lamenting the fact that people love it so much that we're inevitably going to get buried in it for the next twenty years. Case in point: reality TV. I hate how popular it is, because plenty of great show ideas are tossed aside because they're more expensive than (and thus not as profitable as) yet another reality show.

But I think that's different from the thing you're asking.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

[But you hate it because it is popular. Had you only heard of it in passing, you would have most likely disregarded it as something you were uninterested in. But because of the amount of love it gets from the fans of the series, the reaction from you is to over analyze the series and start to hate it. You hate it because of the attention it gets.

BZZZT! Wrong. Again: I dislike Twilight on its own...shall we say, merits. Its popularity merely mystifies me.

That's not the same as hating it because it's popular, or even because it's overrated. If the series were a running joke like (for example) the Maradonia books, my opinion of it wouldn't be any higher. I poke fun at bad books in general.

 

[pwnzerstick]

I won't hate something just for being popular, what I mean is that if something I find genuinely bad, is popular the popularity will make me hate it more, because I feel that it doesn't deserve the popularity. If a bad thing is unpopular I won't feel as much hatered towards it as it is getting what it deserves. I like good things that are popular or unpopular, but the popularity of bad things is what gets me.