Why is it that once something becomes popular, it seems that everyone on the internet starts to hate it?

This is something that really bugs me. Very popular things, whether good or not, always seem to attract a large amount of negative people. For instance, the Halo games-they’re hugely popular, have huge critical acclaim and have sold millions of copies. But it seems you find more people that hate them than like them on the internet.

The same thing goes for popular music. I am one of the people who loathes a lot of radio music (due to its focus on beat and catchiness rather than quality and lyrics), but I still don’t understand why everyone you see online has a hatred of it.

And it is also true to books-I have seen quite a lot of people state that books like Harry Potter are terrible. In fact, it seems true to most pieces of media. The more popular something is, the more people will latch onto it and state that is terrible.

So why do you think this is? Personally I’m guessing it’s something to do with the fact that people like to be recognised, and “going against the flow” or hating something a lot of people love is a good way to achieve that.

Welcome to counter-culture. It’s “cool” dislike popular things because it makes you “different.”

Originally posted by Iggyshark:

Welcome to counter-culture. It’s “cool” dislike popular things because it makes you “different.”

It’s odd that difference is frowned upon in some environments and respected in others. You say you hate some highly popular band in a school, and everyone gets pissed off. You say it online, and everyone thinks you’re awesome.

Perhaps it has to do with the nature of the internet. You are anonymous over the internet. You can say anything. Either that, or counter culture is much stronger online. I have never really noticed it. There are some exceptions, such as Trogdor. I have never met someone who hates Trogdor.

One word: /b/.

That is all.

Very popular things like iphone, ipod, facebook, and myspace? Yea they’re liked by almost everyone including those on internet (and those who are “against” it are probably just pricks!!)

It is counter-culture. Many people think being different is cool. It’s ok to be unique, but if you just change beliefs to be different, then something is wrong.

EDIT: More likely because they want attention.

Hm… a bunch of noisy pricks complaining about things. That would explain it.

Originally posted by ohmylanta:

It is counter-culture. Many people think being different is cool. It’s ok to be unique, but if you just change beliefs to be different, then something is wrong.

EDIT: More likely because they want attention.

This.

Also keep in mind that the internet is not reigon locked. I’m sure some people in, say, Australia hate “Party in the USA” for reasons apparent in the title.

Me? I tend not to like popular things because it invokes higher standards and needless comparison. I’ve been trying to write Sci-Fi recently and just on the concept of Aliens coming to earth on a religious pilgrimage, people say I’m ripping off Halo (A game I never played) and ignore the fact that my book can be so far from the truth.

I also know someone who has been accused of ripping off harry potter for involving the placement of souls into items.

If you ever do a large-scale project like a game or book (Both I’ve done, I’m sticking to books) you’d definitely realize that your things will be wrongly compared to mainstream things for ridiculous things. It ticks me off to high heavens.

Originally posted by Rothycat:

One word: /b/.

That is all.

lol /b/ is so stoopid!!!!!!

Because things that get popular attract fanatical and unwarranted acclaim. The new hatred is a knee-jerk reaction to this. Using the example you gave, it’s not difficult to find statements like “Halo is really good except for its fans.”

Originally posted by Thatsomegoodname:

Very popular things like iphone

iPhones? They’re hideous, and popular because they’re popular.

“Why do you have an iPhone?”
“…”
“Well?”
“Because it’s an iPhone.”
“But why?”
“… it has apps?”
“Which apps do you have?”
“…”

Ugly, touch screen, locked-up, dysfunctional class-trailing sack of iCrap. Hate hate hate.

—

Ahem. On the topic, generally agree with what Iggy said.

In most online communities it seems to be cool to be different, whereas in the real world it’s cool to be the same.

I do hope you are kidding.

iPhones? They’re hideous, and popular because they’re popular.

In fairness… they get the internet and when I got mine, the Droid wasn’t available. Some of the apps are nice, but not so much so as to justify going with such a leashed design.

Originally posted by NeilSenna:

Originally posted by Thatsomegoodname:

Very popular things like iphone

iPhones? They’re hideous, and popular because they’re popular.

“Why do you have an iPhone?”

“…”

“Well?”

“Because it’s an iPhone.”

“But why?”

“… it has apps?”

“Which apps do you have?”

“…”

Ugly, touch screen, locked-up, dysfunctional class-trailing sack of iCrap. Hate hate hate.

—

Ahem. On the topic, generally agree with what Iggy said.

In most online communities it seems to be cool to be different, whereas in the real world it’s cool to be the same.

I have an iPod touch that I use purely for google when I study, ect. It’s very convinient.

This is something that really bugs me. Very popular things, whether good or not, always seem to attract a large amount of negative people.

For anything you can possibly think up, most people will dislike it.

The difference between popular and not-popular things is that the people who dislike them generally don’t know and don’t care about the stuff that isn’t popular.

For some, it’s probably “counter-culture”.
For others, it’s probably just trying to upset people by bashing their “likes”.
For others, it’s honest preference.

For me, personally? I’ve never played Halo, I’ve never read Harry Potter, I’ve never owned an iPhone. But I can’t stand any of them. Why? People won’t shut the hell up about them, basically.

Apart from counter-culture, it is often because the thing which has become popular is getting more discussion/promotion etc compared what the people who dislike it think is superior.

I would say people reject popular things because the popularity steals attention away from what you think of as better products. The popularity does effect your opinion of the product, because you’re irked that your favorite product isn’t popular instead.

1) No matter what something is, there are people that will hate it.

2) The more popular something is, the higher the number of people that will know about it, including people who would’ve avoided it altogether.

3) The internet is a tool of communication that allows anyone, anywhere, to give their own personal opinions.

1+2 means that you will have a much larger group of “haters”. 3 means that you will hear about it. Blaming it on something stupid like “going against the flow” is petty, and hardly accurate.

For example, I despise the whole Twilight series and the mania behind it. I don’t hate it because it’s popular, I hate it because I think it’s a poorly written, trashy romance series. However, if it had never become popular, I never would have heard about it. You, however, choose to interpret my hatred being related to the popularity, which is completely false.

I did not mean to imply that anyone who hates something popular is trying to “go against the flow”. I was merely making an observation on the fact that once something becomes popular, you tend to see a lot of hate, sometimes it seems that there are more people who dislike it than like it.

Hell, I hate most radio music.

Originally posted by generalvalter:

I would say people reject popular things because the popularity steals attention away from what you think of as better products. The popularity does effect your opinion of the product, because you’re irked that your favorite product isn’t popular instead.

Idk, for me it’s like… I would rather discover something I like on my own instead of having it shoved in my face at every turn. That just makes it unappealing.

It’s Populer, Now It Sucks

To summarize, either “it” is assumed to pander to the lowest common denominator in order to gain such popularity, or as stated above “It’s “cool” dislike popular things because it makes you “different.””