Opinion: Celebrate differences with discussion, not opinion shaming

We live in an opinionated world. You don’t have to try hard to find an opinion seemingly everywhere you look. Every time we watch TV or even YouTube, we are forced to watch opinionated ads about what products we should use. Every time we log into social media, we’re exposed to opinions from friends.

If you know me personally, you know that I tend to be an opinionated person. That’s especially relevant if you keep up with me each week. In fact, my articles can be found on MediaOCU.com under the “opinion” section. The editors title this page of the paper “opinion.” I’ve never been afraid to express an opinion, and I thought I never would be-until now.

Yes, it is true, practically everything we do is based off of opinions, but it seems everyone is getting overzealous with them.

When Philadelphia won the Super Bowl-take that, Tom Brady-I posted about how I was impressed with Justin Timberlake’s performance. I made a joke about artists who have used lip-syncing in the past, but made no allusion that he was the best performance at a Super Bowl to date. Yet, everyone had to comment on the post and react with mad faces.

Really? Something as trivial and frivolous as a Super Bowl performance is worth the risk of burning bridges? I understand that we all like to have our opinions, but it seemed to me that this was excessive.

I get frustrated when I’m on social media. People like snide comments on my posts, but not the posts themselves. People reply to my tweets with snarky comebacks. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good self-demeaning joke every now and again. It’s healthy and keeps me in touch with myself. Yet, coming after me for my opinions? That frustrates me.

This is where my human imperfection shines, though. I am guilty of opinion shaming. I’ll argue that I unintentionally diminish peoples’ opinions every day, but why should I? An opinion is just that, an opinion. While fact can often be involved, it still comes down to different peoples’ beliefs. We all have different opinions, and we should celebrate our differences rather than highlight them.

We like to be defined by our compassion and understanding, especially as college students. We are inheriting a hurting world when we graduate.

As I go forward, I’m going to do my best to respect others’ opinions and only debate facts. That keeps things less hostile between me and others, and hopefully will lead me to be happier as I finish each day.

Being a student is exhausting enough. The last thing I need is additional stress!