The Bandwagon

[jackfaire]

This particular thread seeks to understand why people start agreeing with everyone else when they themselves have no experience on the (insert whatever they are saying here).

The most specific example I have of this is Windows Vista. This is not a discussion about whether the program is a good one or not this is about the scenario I will show you.

My friend has been telling me for the last year how much Vista sucks how it's a horrible program and no one should get it and won't the world be great once Windows 7 comes out. This is his opinion and as such he is entitled to it.

My issue is that recently I upgraded to a new laptop that came bundled with Vista. Now I personally love it. I think it's great and it has features that I didn't even realize I was missing until I had them.

Now what happened when I told my friend how much I loved it is that he was like, "Oh well (insert various names of other people) didn't like it"

I naturally asked what issues he had as I know he utilizes his computer in some ways similar to what I do. He then reveals to me that he personally has never used Vista and his entire basis for vehmently hating it is because other people hate it.

It got me to thinking how many times I have been told things are bad or suck that was not really an opinion based on that person's experience.

Now I am very glad that my blanket policy is to try something, within reason, anyway.

[protege]

I've always told people, that up until now, I'd never used Vista. Sure, it had its problems when it first came out...mainly because nobody had written updated drivers for it. Eventually, all of that was taken care of, and Vista seems to be more reliable than XP.

Still, I can't really use Vista at work. None of the programs--our proprietary database, trading system, plus most of the applications we use--simply wasn't designed for Vista. All of it was designed to run under Windows 95/98/00/XP. With XP support possibly stopping over the summer, we're going to skip Vista, and jump to 7 instead. By then, every incompatible program will have been replaced.

[Ree]

I know exactly what you mean.

It's like certain movies and TV shows.
I see them and enjoy them, only to find that, because of popular opinion, I was supposed to hate them.

I come away entertained, and then get embarrassed to find the movie got a "Golden Raspberry" because it stunk up the place so badly. :confused:

I found the same thing with Vista.
The year that Vista came out, I got 2 new laptops for family members as Christmas gifts. Vista was loaded on both of them.
I was a little leery, because I had been hearing only horror stories. I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually liked Vista as I played around with it and found out all of its features.

I didn't understand the fuss.

[protege]

I didn't understand the fuss.

Most of the fuss stemmed from people getting upset...that their scanner or other piece of outdated hardware (or software) wasn't Vista-compatible. They chose to complain immediately, instead of simply waiting a bit.

[Greenday]

I'm personally not a fan of Vista. Windows was always meant to be user friendly for their marketing. Vista is not. I regularly have to use school computers for assignments at times and they all have Vista. The new forms of word and excel take a lot more work to use. It used to just be everything was right in front of you to use and now they have all these tabs that still don't ever seem to have what I need. And the stupid start button got a lot smaller making it easier to miss!

[BroomJockey]

The new forms of word and excel take a lot more work to use. It used to just be everything was right in front of you to use and now they have all these tabs that still don't ever seem to have what I need.

That has absolutely nothing to do with Vista, you know. In fact, the OS designers have repeatedly stated they take their design choices from the people who design Office.

And if you've such issues finding the start menu, try using the windows key to open the menu for you.

[AdminAssistant]

I hate the specialized bandwagons - for example, I study theatre, so I must love Glee right? Wrong. I've never seen it, and I don't really care to. Or, I'm a woman, so I must love sappy romantic comedies. Bleh.

My favorite guilty pleasure movie is Tarantino's Death Proof. That always gets a strong, negative reaction, "OMG, that movie was crap! He stole it from some college kid! How could you like it?" Well, it has a kickass chase scene, enjoyable characters (2nd half), Kurt Russell as the most awesome creepy bad guy ever, and it's fun.

[jackfaire]

Or, I'm a woman, so I must love sappy romantic comedies. Bleh.


lol I am a big ex soldier guy and romantic comedies are my guilty pleasure. I always shed a tear when Sally says, "I hate you Harry I really hate you" right before she kisses him.

[Greenday]

That has absolutely nothing to do with Vista, you know. In fact, the OS designers have repeatedly stated they take their design choices from the people who design Office.

And if you've such issues finding the start menu, try using the windows key to open the menu for you.

Ugh, then I'd have to change what I'm used to!

/sarcasm

[BroomJockey]

Ugh, then I'd have to change what I'm used to!

/sarcasm

Okay, I laughed. I admit it.

I notice though, everyone's talking about various bandwagons, but no one's actually talked about the OP, which was asking why bandwagoneering occurs. I'll now attempt to buck the trend by taking a stab at it.

People jump on the bandwagon because of herd instinct. We've ingrained to us from a young age that you can and will be rejected if your tastes differ from the majority. Even if you personally weren't rejected, you'd see it happen to others. So when you start hearing a groundswell of support for/against something, and you've no particular investment in it, you jump on the side that seems most popular and adopt it as your own. However, you know nothing about the topic beyond what you've been told by other people, so you make up for your lack of knowledge with volume and fervour in an attempt to convince people you know your position. Many people are even excellent at convincing themselves they really do hold that position and they care deeply.

[jackfaire]

See even while getting picked on for holding different views I could never follow herd mentatly I was pathologically adverse to it.

[BroomJockey]

See even while getting picked on for holding different views I could never follow herd mentatly I was pathologically adverse to it.

Yes, mine is hardly a comprehensive or universal explanation. Some people just like hating stuff. Or like liking stuff. Or like liking popular things. Or hate liking popular things. *shrug*

[jackfaire]

Yes, mine is hardly a comprehensive or universal explanation. Some people just like hating stuff. Or like liking stuff. Or like liking popular things. Or hate liking popular things. *shrug*

I thought yours was a very good explanation actually though was musing on maybe that is why I don't do it

[BroomJockey]

was musing on maybe that is why I don't do it

Well, you would know you best, I believe. If not, you might have some issues ;)

[jackfaire]

Actually I have subscriptions.

[Skunkle]

Most of my friends didn't care for Vista, but I only refused to switch because I HATE changes. If I'm forced to use a new, even semi-different version of a program, it's like dumping a box of wrenches into my gears. I get all fouled up and I'm utterly lost for quite a while, even if I read the help stuff and figure out where everything is. Doesn't matter if I know whewre all the tools are, or even if I know how to use them - it's DIFFERENT.

[jackfaire]

Most of my friends didn't care for Vista, but I only refused to switch because I HATE changes.

Honestly not a huge fan of changes either a couple of major ones made life really interesting, in the curse you to have an interesting life sort of way, and now I like being boring at least for now.

However I had a moment where I had a bit of extra cash and had never owned a brand new computer that no one else had owned before and wanted to experience that. Vista was part of it and wow I loved it. I understand not everyone does and that's awesome if everyone liked what I liked I would have nothing to look at them and judge them silently for :p

[I8DaCookie]

I hate the specialized bandwagons - for example, I study theatre, so I must love Glee right? Wrong. I've never seen it, and I don't really care to.

I get this one all the time from my students. "Ms. Cookie! How can you call yourself a theatre geek and not like Glee?"

Well one, I don't have TV. I don't even get DTV reception (which is a whole different rant). Two, didn't watch it when it first came on and just wasn't interested and while it's on hulu, it's on season 2. Three, the small amount I did watch when I was at my parent's house for Thanksgiving made me want to drive a pencil into my ears. The songs were too professionally dubbed and the lip synch was horrible, it was just too damned unrealistic.

[linguist]

Two, didn't watch it when it first came on and just wasn't interested and while it's on hulu, it's on season 2.

while your other reasons are valid enough, i'm not quite sure where you're getting this from; the show is right in the middle of its first season. a quick check of hulu shows that every full episode is listed as season 1 as well.

[Slytovhand]

I completely agree!

What are we talking about??

I've tried Vista, but since I'm not used to it, can't really say. All I could say was sort of taken from my mates... who just happened to be in the IT industry, or used PC's a lot (when not using Linux). So, I'd say that sort of counts...

People became more and more needing of groups and societies, and it used to be that being ousted from a group was a virtual death sentence - you couldn't survive on your own. Now, I'd say that we still have that group mentality built into us (like many other things that are still built into us), and in fear of being ostracised from the group (and thus, 'dying'), we just go along with it as a survival mechanism.

[jackfaire]

Now, I'd say that we still have that group mentality built into us (like many other things that are still built into us), and in fear of being ostracised from the group (and thus, 'dying'), we just go along with it as a survival mechanism.

I think it's more taught than built in. From earliest childhood I was told I would have to work in groups. The problem for me was two fold. 1) I would tend to be smarter than my peers. 2) They wouldn't listen to me.

They teachers would always quote, "We are teaching you the value of teamwork" To this end they would not accept group assignments unless all your answers matched. Since I was the only wanting to put down the right answers and everyone else was sure their answers were right I would have to change mine to the wrong answers and my grade would suffer accordingly.

I understand working in groups on an art project or grading the kids on the teamwork and not the correctness of answers but when your grading the kids on whether their answers were right but making them adhere to the wrong answers if that is what the group wants is a dangerous precedent.

[MadMike]

I never understood the whole bandwagon mentality myself, liking or hating something for no other reason than "everyone else does."

Don't get me wrong, if there's a lot of hype over something, that might compel me to try it. But if I try it and find I don't like it, I'm not going to pretend to like it because everyone else is doing it.