You are growing in a thumbs-up/thumbs-down world. Everywhere you look, someone is telling you whether something is “good” or not. And it’s not just movies and books—people have opinions about socks! cat breeds! earlobe shapes! pineapple on pizza! haircuts! superpowers!
OK, you get the idea.
The thing is, the world wasn’t always like this. Before the Internet, people spent more time talking face-to-face, and conversations would have been pretty darn short if people just talked in thumbs-up/thumbs-down language. What can be fun online is, well, sort of boring IRL.
This sort of thumbs up/down language is a problem because it’s what we call an “unsubstantiated value judgment.” (Try saying that three times fast!) It’s not very interesting because the person who hears your opinion isn’t going to be able to engage. Consider this conversation:
“The new Marvel movie is the best ever!”
“I hated it.”
That’s the end, right?
But what if we remove the value judgments and go deeper?
“I really liked that chase scene with the hot air balloons—my stomach was doing backflips.”
“Yeah, that was actually pretty cool. I wish they had done more character development, though. I didn’t feel connected to the characters at all.”
All of a sudden, we have a conversation! The two speakers in the conversation didn’t change their opinions, but they did start to understand why each felt the way they did about the movie.
A challenge for you
So I’m going to issue a challenge to you: Try to avoid value judgments when you talk to people. Instead of “do you like the pizza?” try “I think this might be the stretchiest cheese I ever met.” Instead of “do you like the book?” try “what do you think of that big mistake Harry made in the cave?”
When your teacher asks for feedback, don’t stick with thumbs up/down language. Try to find one interesting thing to point out—whether or not you actually like the assignment.
See what happens when you keep those thumbs tucked in and all of your options open!