Is explicating "IMO" before an opinion neccessary?

[remnant_phoenix]

This is a common complaint I've seen among escapists, and the internet in general, so I'd like to address it directly.

It seems that if one states one's opinion without including a precedent or antecedent along the lines of "In my opinion," "I think," "I feel," "to me," "the way I see it," or something else along those lines, there is a huge contingent of people who will jump on you and call you out for trying to pass off your opinion as fact.

Cases and point:

Let's say I posted a thread in the Gaming Discussion forum with the subject line: "In my opinion, Portal is the best game ever," and followed that up with a post of unrestrained and glorifying praise. No one would likely get defensive, everyone would understand (and most people would respect) that that is my opinion, and we would likely have a good-natured debate about Portal as a game.

Now let's say I posted the exact same thread with the subject line "Portal is the best game ever." The only difference would be the omission of the "In my opinion" preface. I would likely get jumped on by people reminding me that is just my opinion and not an objective fact and the thread would likely degenerate into discussions of fanboyism and general trolling.

I'd like to believe that people aren't so insecure and defensive that they assume that anyone making a claim without the EXPLICIT STATEMENT that it is their opinion is making the pretense that their opinion is unequivocal truth, but the internet seems intent on proving me wrong.

And just for those of you who are that insecure/defensive, the scenarios I described above as cases are hypothetical conjecture, and the fact that I feel compelled to state that so that this thread doesn't degenerate into a dissection of my hypothetical conjecture put a bad taste in my mouth. Ungh...

Is explicitly stating that your opinion is opinion really necessary?

If so, should it be necessary, or have we become too sensitive for our own good?

Why is the internet so full of defensiveness?

 

[Esotera]

The internet is full of defensiveness because it is fully populated by offensive, argumentative assholes (IMO).

I think it can be useful in certain threads where people seem to forget that we're discussing opinions, not facts - atheism vs. Christianity threads in R&P for example.

 

[capper42]

If I say "This band is shit", I'm clearly expressing an opinion, and there is no need to make that even more obvious.

Any comment on a subjective topic is an opinion, and it just makes the conversation twice as long and ten times more annoying if everyone has to say "In My Opinion" before anything they say.

 

[Dags90]

Imo, it's worth tacking on the three letters sometimes just to remind people that you're just stating a viewpoint.

It's hard not to become defensive in an environment that's crawling with accusatory dingbats.

 

[cerebus23]

Too many trolls and some actual people tend to view their opinions as absolute fact. So i do think it helps to state imo so you show you are not among them.

 

[o_O]

Well, going by your "Portal is the best game ever," example, I'd say yes. We, the general populace, cannot tell if you *are* stating that as a fact or opinion. It's a rather vaguely worded statement after all. Not to mention that there are enough people stupid enough to pass it off as "right" or whatever that it's better to err that that's exactly what you're trying to do unless stated otherwise.

Maybe I just hang around too many stupid places. Oh well. It still won't kill you to type a whole three more words or three goddamn letters to clarify.

 

[ErwinGodfrey]

Saying "in my opinion" before you say something that you know could offend others, is usually just a half-ass precaution in case someone thinks your opinion is fucking stupid. That way you can say "Well it was only an opinion, you don't have to be so upset" which is an underhanded way to make the person arguing against you look more illogical than you are actually being.

Also if you use the words "in my opinion" it can also have the effect of making people think that you aren't really that serious, and so they think that there is no point in arguing with someone who has no intention of defending their opinion anyway.

Anyway, what was an actual example of a really defensive response to an opinion that you encountered, maybe include a link to the thread too, if you please.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Without saying in my opinion, you are essentially passing something off as fact, so yes in my opinion is necessary really and there's no harm not writing it anyway.

 

[sammysoso]

It really should go without saying, especially on an Internet forum.

But this is the Internet, with people primed to accuse,insult,and argue all the time.

 

[mechalynx]

I use IMO whenever I'm not at least 75% sure my forum post won't start a flame war. I like to think of it as healthy start for a debate over a topic I'd like to see other views on; a sort of "Hello! This is my perception of reality at hand. It is not an absolute fact and can be changed if you present a decent argument to why you disagree." By using an IMO I would actually love to hear your views, Mr/Ms Person on the other end of the interwebs.

 

[DoPo]

Is explicitly stating that your opinion is opinion really necessary?

If so, should it be necessary, or have we become too sensitive for our own good?

Why is the internet so full of defensiveness?

Given that I don't tend to put any sort of IMO when I'm not stating an opinion and I've had people have mistook my words for one, then yes, it seems necessary. If people were savvy enough to understand the difference, I wouldn't see a big reason to include the extra reminding information.

 

[Savryc]

It should be bloody obvious, if it wasn't my opinion there wouldn't be a post to begin with. I don't walk around saying "IMO" whenever I'm about to speak so I'm not going to type it either. Your need of over-clarification isn't my concern.

 

[DEAD34345]

Practically everything everyone says is just an opinion, it'd be stupid and completely redundant to add "IMO" or anything like that every time you wanted to say something. I've also seen these people who will shoot someone down just because they haven't explicitly stated they were making an opinion instead of a fact, and the bottom line is that they should be completely ignored.

Take 2:

I believe that practically everything everyone says is just an opinion, therefore I think that it'd be stupid and completely redundant to add "IMO" or anything like that every time you wanted to say something. I've also seen these people who will shoot someone down just because they haven't explicitly stated they were making an opinion, and the bottom line is that I believe they should be completely ignored.

Did that make any real difference to my post or the point I was making? I believe that it is my opinion that I think it didn't, though it's also possible that I think my opinion is that it may be different when experienced from your personal viewpoint. No, it didn't.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

It shouldn't be necessary to point out that something's an opinion. It should be pretty obvious. However, the internet is full of people that will argue with you and insult your maternal parent if you don't share their views. They're the people that make it easier to point out that something is an opinion every time than to deal with the endless rage they'll send at you.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

I don't know about 100% necessary, but it can be useful.

It is less about identifying opinion, most statements on the internet are, and more about identifying the intended tone of the writer.

There are a lot of, as you put it, insecure people out there who do actually state their opinion as fact. Sometimes without the "IMO" identifier, it can be hard to distinguish a "friendly" poster who is simply stating their preference, and a "hostile" poster who wishes to impose their will upon the reader; i.e. a fanboy or troll.

Proper writing can make that distinction easy. Though writing conventions is also one of those divisive topics on the internet.

While I wouldn't consider it mandatory, I think that a qualifier such as "IMO", "I think", or "for me" can help identify the poster's intent.

 

[Pebkio]

I think there are the diehards who roam from forum to forum looking for posts to jump on. I've been to forums staffed with ONLY those people, and it's not enjoyable. They demand that you prove things like "movies are pirated more than books". Ignore them because they are just trying to spread their unhappiness through officiousness.

I also don't see them around here much.

 

[LetalisK]

The internet is full of defensiveness because it is fully populated by offensive, argumentative assholes (IMO).

No, I think it's safe to say that's not merely an opinion. >.>

OT: Yeah, "IMO" is often times necessary because of the insecure fucknuts that insist on a standard of divine objective truth in everything. FACT.

Edit: Opinions go great with potatoes.

 

[AngloDoom]

I don't think it's necessarily an internet-only phenomenon. If someone I know says "You should try this game, it's amazing!" and I've already played it and didn't enjoy it, I won't say "Actually, I played it and it was shit" I'd say "Actually, I played it and I thought it was shit."

Although both are clearly opinions, only one could be interpreted as a way of stifling any different view on the matter so I'll go for the safe option.

I mean, your opening sentence to address the matter is "it seems that", which is another form of simply presenting an option for scrutiny rather than authoritatively stating it is truth. You could easily left out the words "it seems that" and the sentence would have had the exact same meaning, only you'd be saying it with a different kind of conviction.

 

[Filiecs]

Well, according to the english language, if you DON'T say that you are stating an opinion then you are stating something objective.
It is necessary to make your opinion explicit if you want to be able to accurately relay your thoughts across the internet. Otherwise, miscommunication is probably going to happen because you are not following the rules of the language that you subscribed to using.

Using "In my opinion" usually protects you from being thought of as a zealot.
Being lazy or forgetting to use it does not.

It has nothing to do with insecurity, it's just the way the english language works.

 

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

Considering that the general internet user base's reading comprehension seems to be very poor, I'd say the more clarification the better--I only assume my reading comprehension is good enough as to denounce others, is that I tend to most often interpret a person's words correctly; as evidenced by when they clarify them further after their statements are called into question or attacked by another (you know, those scathing quote replies). Also, it makes me feel special. Yes, this belief--maybe hope is a better word--is likely inaccurate to some degree or another and is based only on personal observation and what I think I remember.

Look at all that clarification I felt the need to add. And looked at all dem vocab words I'm employing to make myself appear erudite. I think I mostly add tons of clarifying parentheticals and such to understand myself better or something, more than for being more clear to others...

ANYWAY!
I wish that adding IMOs to everything didn't feel as necessary as it does sometimes. I can be briefly miffed by things people say, but I don't get all obstinate and immediately infer that the person is declaring their opinion as universal standard. You need vocal inflection and intonation to interpret that. I just assume most people are actually pretty chill when they type stuff out, no matter how impassioned your interpretation can cause their words to appear.