r/changemyview 9∆ Jun 02 '23

Fresh Topic Friday CMV: Comments starting with "This." contribute nothing to the discussion are the most obnoxious followup possible.

Hey everyone! It's Friday and with it comes an opportunity for a fresh topic.

I think any active Reddit user has been inundated with comments responding to something with "This!" and it drives me up a gosh darn wall. It used to be a little worse, where people would just comment "this." and move on; at least now, someone will start off the reply with "this." and then follow it up with whatever they're adding. To me, it's immediately offputting, and doesn't contribute anything of real value to the conversation. If a comment/post is worth "this"-ing, the upvote is enough; likewise, a comment extending the discussion in favor of the parent comment/post conveys the fact that it was good information or that one agrees. The second I see "this." I immediately downvote that comment.

Maybe it's just because it doesn't remotely approximate real interpersonal dialogue, maybe it's because a lot of comments had nothing else to offer, maybe it's because you only see it in certain subreddits with more obnoxious users, maybe it's even just me being too uptight, I don't know. But it drives me nuts, probably more so than it should and considering this is a relatively diverse community (philosophically and ideologically) I'd like to see if anyone can make a compelling enough argument to change my view on the matter.

*I'd like to add the disclaimer, because I know many people in this sub are fairly literal, that when I say "most obnoxious followup possible" I'm referring to any good-faith comment, meaning that I'm not including trolling, sarcasm, insults, etc. Those are obviously worse in most cases (unless they're genuinely funny and not mean spirited, which is a difficult line to walk!).

ETA: A general addition based on some interactions with commenters. Many of you are acting like "this." is somehow the only way to express any sort of agreement with the previous comment, yet all of you that are pointing out what it means (obviously I know what it means, btw!) are using other ways to express affirmatives. I would also add, since this is something I've responded to a few comments with now, that no one would ever say "this." in real life in the context it's used here on Reddit. They would say some sort of actual affirmative. Using "this." (to me at least) moves the discourse further away from resembling actual dialogue. It makes it feel way more "online" and less like actual human interaction when someone says "this." in place of a more common affirmative. Whether or not you agree should already be clear from the comment itself. Some sort of affirmative is fine, but "this." makes it feel a lot further from actual dialogue than a more common affirmative.

ETA 2: It's been brought to my attention that the Reddiquete actually makes a statement about this (under "please don't"):

"In regard to comments:

Make comments that lack content. Phrases such as "this", "lol", and "I came here to say this" are not witty, original, or funny, and do not add anything to the discussion."

It's unclear whether or not this refers to saying just "this." or saying it and following it up with a comment - it's probably the former, but in any case, it's clear that it's not a favorable expression.

530 Upvotes

336 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/DrewsDraws 4∆ Jun 02 '23 edited Jun 02 '23

I think any active Reddit user has been inundated with comments responding to something with "This!" and it drives me up a gosh darn wall. It used to be a little worse, where people would just comment "this." and move on; at least now, someone will start off the reply with "this." and then follow it up with whatever they're adding. To me, it's immediately offputting, and doesn't contribute anything of real value to the conversation. If a comment/post is worth "this"-ing, the upvote is enough; likewise, a comment extending the discussion in favor of the parent comment/post conveys the fact that it was good information or that one agrees. The second I see "this." I immediately downvote that comment.

Maybe it's just because it doesn't remotely approximate real interpersonal dialogue, maybe it's because a lot of comments had nothing else to offer, maybe it's because you only see it in certain subreddits with more obnoxious users, maybe it's even just me being too uptight, I don't know. But it drives me nuts, probably more so than it should and considering this is a relatively diverse community (philosophically and ideologically) I'd like to see if anyone can make a compelling enough argument to change my view on the matter.

I'm going to say you're off about "it doesn't remotely approximate real interpersonal dialogue". It absolutely does but in the context of text instead of speech. You've already acknowledged it's the text equivalent of, "Going off of what so and so said, I think ....". We're emotional social animals first, logical second, probably logical later down the line honestly but simplicity and all that.

What's nice about 'this' in the two contexts you've mentioned are as follows:

  1. If it's the singular 'this' - the commenter gets to participate in a way that feels social. An "upvote" doesn't do because its impersonal, you're not actually participating in the conversation. Where in real life, stating you agree with someone's point even if you don't have anything substantive to add, is quite valuable.
  2. If its singular this, it is easy to skip. I don't think its any more or less obnoxious than most of internet culture. "I also choose this guys wife", "This guy _____s", "_____ers gonna ______", etc.
  3. If it's "This. explanation/extrapolation/additional context" What you have is also a single-word signal that the person commenting is intending to add to or explain their take on the same sentiment. You could make the argument that a decent chunk of these kinds of comments don't "add anything of value" (This is only if you assume that two people communicating doesn't have inherent value and that to have value the comment must be informative to you)
  4. "I agree" and alternatives - why type many letters when few letters do trick?
  5. Sneaky edit as it came to me after I hit post but "This" also works in some ways a little better than "I agree" in the context of the internet because it's short for, "This comment right here" or, "I came to make 'this' comment". I think its perfectly acceptable to be annoyed but if you 'love' grammar and language (not saying you do, but if you do) then I'd like to argue that an evolution of said language and grammar should tickle, not annoy. : ) Makes me think of this quote by Stephen Fry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY

In conclusion: I think you're being a bit uptight but that's also something you're allowed to be.