An Opinionated Analysis on the Importance of Opinions

We all like to think that our opinions matter.

This is why social media exists: it fulfills a certain narcissistic element we all have within ourselves.

We have a burning need to show everyone what we're doing and tell everyone what we're thinking because deep down, we think it matters to some degree.

Hey, I'm writing an entire 500-or-more-word article for a magazine with my opinion in it. Because I find it fun and I like to poke at our views on life and see what's below the surface.

And this is what I see: we all like to think that our opinions matter.

Here's the deeply ironic thing: they don't.

In the grand scheme of things, who cares? You think you look cute in that Snapchat filter? Great. What does that matter? You have an opinion on this election? Just adds to the noise really and it's not gonna be something we haven't heard already. You're cheering for your team tonight? So are thousands others, you're not unique here. You hate Mondays? You like bacon? You overshare memes? Irrelevant to the bigger picture (except for memes, memes are forever).

I'm guilty of at least one of these things, so I'm not trying to condemn anyone. I'm just saying that these things that we find important really aren't.

If you really want to analyze the nature of people in the world, you'll find that we have the capacity to be incredibly terrible or wonderfully marvelous, but most of the time, we're just very apathetic to one another.

The fact is that the universe is completely indifferent to you and your thoughts. In short, no one cares.

Our opinions are pretty much worthless. They don't add anything. They don't help anyone. Our words don't generate aid for those hurting or new solutions for problems. We as humans are incredibly unoriginal for the most part. This doesn't mean we're incapable of solving our problems with original ideas, it just means that the average joe like you or me usually doesn't and probably won't.

And yet we are so insistent to give our opinions it seems. Efficacy, political or otherwise, is heavily insisted in this country. "Have opinions!" we say. "Your vote matters!" we say. "Listen to me!" we say.

Have we ever stopped to ask the question why?

Why should I have an opinion? Who actually cares? Who wants to listen to me, some random loser just like every other random loser? And here's another big question: Why would I want to listen to you, a random loser just like every other random loser?

As I previously stated, the world is generally apathetic to you and not only doesn't need your opinion, but doesn't want your opinion. Or mine.

So why care?

It's quite simple, actually: we need opinions.

I know I just said that the universe doesn't need your opinion or mine. It doesn't. But we as INDIVIDUALS need opinions.

Let me explain: on the whole, society in order to survive just needs to be. As long as it exists, society lives on. But we as individuals need the opinions of others not just to help form our own, but to challenge our own.

This is why we as individuals cling to and highly value opinions as much as we do. We need them to either critique, agree with, or just listen to.

To contrast, society itself is just a thing and not a person. It consists of people, yes, but it itself is not a literal living entity. To put it simply: it's the individuals of society that matter, not society itself.

Shouting at society is pointless. Society is not going to shout back. It's not going to agree with you. It can't. It doesn't care. It'll never care because you're just an individual. A person. A face in the ground. A mass just like any other. Who says you matter more than the others? And even if you got a group together, if you're not big enough to affect policy that directly affect society, society as a whole is not going to care. This is the nature of collectivism. Sit down, shut up, join the crowd. You don't matter because no one matters.

However, having a discussion with another individual or even a group of individuals is important and even beneficial to society as a whole. When we focus on the individual versus the group we find more intelligent discussion because individuals are the ones with opinions, not groups.

And since individuals make up groups, and society is a giant group, we affect society more when we speak to the individual. And we want to improve society, so that it can be better for the individuals.

We share opinions with one another because our opinions contain ideas, which we need to evaluate and share with one another because as mature individuals of society, we need to be able to coexist with different opinions and ideas in order to be more well-rounded and better individuals. This improves society.

So, to those who wanted my opinion by clicking this article, here it is:

Be opinionated, but be mature enough to realize your opinion can be wrong. Share opinions, but share them with decency and tact. Or don't, it doesn't necessarily matter, as long as you realize that being sarcastic doesn't make your opinion any more educated. And hey, sometimes we can't always spin what we say in a polite way.

Realize that while your opinion can matter to some in a small degree, that on the whole compared to the rest of the world, it doesn't, so don't treat your opinion as better than anyone else's.

Do our opinions matter in the grand scheme of things? No. We're not any more special than anyone else. But do we need opinions as individuals to grow as people? Yes. The main takeaway we get from this is, if you think your opinion is worth listening to by the world, then you need a reality check. But if you just want to put your idea out there, then by all means do. Someone's going to find it worthwhile.

And that's all we really want, right? For someone to think our thoughts are worthwhile?