The Right to Civil Disagrements

I was recently watching an episode of What the Tech (a great show featuring Andrew Zarian and Paul Thurrott). In this episode they were discussing their choices for the worst of technology for 2011.

One of Paul’s ‘worst’ for 2011 was Google Plus, and he was very harsh. Being a big fan and user of G+ I immediately bristled. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” I said to myself. A bit upset as I have a ton of respect for Paul’s take on technology, I continue to listen. Later in the show he starts to talk about the Kinect for Xbox and how much of a disappointment it is. Now I’m feeling a bit better as I am a Playstation 3 owner and fan. Later in the show he had a point about Apple I liked alot (especially since I am an Android fan). Suddenly I stopped myself. Is my opinion based solely on my level of like/dislike of a certain company or technology.

So I went back and listened to what Paul said about G+. While I still disagree with his overall conclusion about G+, he actually brought up a couple of points that made me rethink a couple of things. I think too often in the Techosphere we let our fanboyism and certainty of our rightness close ourselves off to legitimate difference of opinion. Worse, it all too often leads to incivility.

All this made me think about how the Techosphere can be pretty hypocritical. While we stomp our feet about how horrible SOPA is and how it threatens our freedom of speech, we often don’t provide a civil arena to practice that freedom of speech. Whether it be big name bloggers going after each other or fanboys hurling personal insults in comments because someone has the temerity to not like everything Apple/Google/Microsoft/Amazon does, we aren’t always good stewards of the rights we demand. Too often we are dismissive of opinions and points simply because they are critical of a company we admire.