Entry #4: Respecting Others

I have not always been a firm believer in respecting others opinions. That had changed midway in my high school life. When I was younger I just thought, "I don't care, I'll say what I want." I felt like it was cool to have hatred toward things and to express that hate very vocally, because I felt like that was how to fit in with the people around me. I saw, and continue to see, society as people not caring what others think and just hate on anything and everything to the harshest extent. Some believe the internet has helped this tenfold. I definitely changed my ways though in high school because clarity entered me and I began to think of the "whys" of things. I began to ask why do people express hatred to the harshest extent? Especially on opinions of others in terms of entertainment. When someone asks another person "hey do you like rap music?" and that person does not enjoy rap music, instead of just saying "it's not my type of music." or "it's just not my thing." they say "because rap music is degrading, stupid, and should just die off." Now I understand that, that may be their opinion, there is still a level of overly harshness to it that is unnecessary. Or whenever someone expresses a fondness for something, there is ALWAYS someone who has to put in their two-cents.
There was speaker I saw at an event for video games, he was on a panel taking general questions, the details are a bit foggy for me to remember but there was one statement that stuck with me. Someone asked him what he wanted most in the video game industry and community and he answered with something along the lines of, "I wish that people were more accepting of other's tastes which is why I don't believe their is such a thing a bad game." That philosophy stuck with me and I put it in perspective of all forms of media and entertainment instead of just video games. I will never say a certain music genre or T.V. show or movie sucks and will always just view it as, "it's just not for me." rather than viewing it as "this is the worst movie/T.V. show/song ever made and I want it off the air." There is no reason for harshness when it comes to differing tastes and preferences in life. All there is needed is respect.