Despite the potential for a dangerous outcome, folks were keen on sharing their takes and the post went viral soon after.
The post itself didn't get all that many likes, a modest 1,800, but the metrics show that it was viewed 80-something million times. So that counts.
The responses folks gave included the classics (“You don't know your friends until you’re in need of support.”), the contemporaries (“Your friends don’t need to know everything about you.”), and the truths that never get old (“Learn how to fix things.”). All in all, the thread went viral with 8,000 likes and reshares as well as over 80 million views.
So, why are opinions so important? The gist of it is that having opinions is important. New people in our lives bring new ideas to the table, it has potential for bringing about change, and that’s why it’s key that we as humans share them (within reason, of course, when asked or when the moment is appropriate. Otherwise, you might end up on r/NobodyAsked).
The beauty of opinions is that they define us as individuals, not just allowing others to understand who we are, but also allowing ourselves to do the same.
Opinions require knowledge, which in turn empowers us to be more confident in ourselves as well as allows us to grow through discussion.
The challenge with opinions comes with the idea of always challenging them. Keeping an open mind and tackling opinions through discussion can have transformative powers, empowering us to learn new things about the world and how diverse it can be, all the while empowering us to become better people and teaching us to accept that we might have been wrong in our beliefs.
And while sharing opinions is not a bad thing, given human nature, it can go south really quickly in the wrong time and place. The obvious time and place is when nobody asked. Another wrong time and place is when the other person doesn’t have the aptitude for discussion, so forcing it might lead to a conflict.
Instead, one of the things that you could do is share experiences instead of opinions.
