As an avid Letterboxd user and Instagram Reels enjoyer, I see dozens of opinions all the time. Thousands and thousands of words are posted saying why National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) is the greatest movie ever made, how global warming isn't ‘that bad’ because it was cold today, and that Fortnite is super overrated now. However accurate (Christmas Vacation is GOATed), inaccurate (that isn’t how global warming works), or immeasurable (overrating is hard to objectify) a person’s claim might be, they, and hundreds of others on the internet, will defend it til the very end.

​

Why do we feel the need to do this? Why are we always posting every thought and opinion as if our lives depended on it? Are we just shouting into the void?

​

Maybe it’s to feel useful or wanted.

​

When I posted a 1.5-star review for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2025), saying “when freddy 5 bear said ‘you have got to spend 5 nights here’ I got terrified,” it wasn’t because I thought I was adding to any discourse on the movie’s quality or plot. I wanted to make someone who might see it laugh. My goal is to be a funny person, because being funny means that others will still want me around.

​

When I get upset and reply to a comment on Instagram that says “woke liberals want to transgender and abort everything,” it comes from a place of wanting to correct someone. My utility is hopefully making someone realize that their beliefs are a radicalized caricature of reality. In the end, though, I know that I’m not going to change anything for them, because someone else told them that they are actually correct and that I am radicalized. But through this, another person who agrees with me will support my argument, and I will be reassured.

 

I’m not the only person who uses the Internet this way. Since it became widely accessible, communities have been formed based solely on a viewpoint, a shared interest in a topic, or simply because someone discovered a website where others were discussing. The internet may be a hellscape of insane things, but that hellscape is available to everyone, at the very least. If one corner of the internet doesn’t want to hear what you’re saying, just search for a different one.

 

Ultimately, someone else is thinking what you want to say, so you can find them and agree with each other, confirming and affirming every thought and feeling you’ve ever had. These corners become a safe space in this limitless void we have created. It is about belonging. To know that someone understands you means everything.

 

The shout we send out isn’t aimless. We post, hoping that somewhere, someone hears. That anyone, anywhere, joins us. So that we aren’t alone.