Social Media: The Death of Reasonable Discussion — or Why I Won’t Be Going Back To GameStop Any Time Soon

https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/q5d2oe/i_prefer_mangoes_to_oranges/

I needed a new PS5 controller today — well, I’ve needed one for a while now and have done a bit of “window shopping” online to see if I could find a color that I was really interested in (I really wanted a collectible one — like the Spider-Man, God of War Ragnarok, or the Astrobot controller, but those have long since sold out to scalpers — a blight on consumer experience which was much different in the 70s, 80s, and yes, even 90s — although sports game ticket and concert ticket scalpers were a frustration to many of the era).

I went to GameStop (I’ll leave the location unknown as my intent isn’t to get anyone in trouble/cause trouble for anyone, but rather to illustrate how social media has changed American mentality). I was trying to decide between the blue controller or the camouflaged one, when the representative mentioned silver. I ended up going with silver (even though I really didn’t want to — and will probably go back and get a different color). Why buy a color that I’m not interested in? Well, I mentioned that I was hoping to score a PS5 30th edition and/or controller and that the color was similar.

Well, while polite, the “knowing smile” that appeared on his face was one of the worst interactions that I’ve ever seen. Why? Read on, dear reader . . .

No PhD Required to be an “Expert”

He goes on to tell me about how the 30th Anniversary PlayStation is a “scalper’s paradise” (his words) and how the PS5 controller will only come with the system and hasn’t been confirmed to come separately. He indicated the it would “probably” come later. Here is the direct information from the PS Blog:

PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle  Pre-orders at participating retailers begin October 10   DualSense Wireless Controller – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition (standalone)Pre-orders at participating retailers begin September 26.  

As you can plainly see — there it is in black and white (Wireless controller–standalone). I thought that was the case at the time, but I didn’t see the need to question it (I’d watched the accompanying video earlier that week). However, the interaction continued in a downward spiral — let’s just put it plainly, the man thought I was an idiot. I can’t speak anymore plainly than that. Not yet sensing the “turn” of the interaction, I continued to make small talk and mentioned that I was going to try for the 30th Anniversary Edition, but would take a PlayStation Pro whichever edition I could get. THAT’S when that sardonic smile popped onto his face. Seeing it, my demeanor changed, and I chose not to go into confrontation mode — I try NOT to do that with customer service workers having been one myself (Waldenbooks = 1.5 years) and working with the public (Library Assistant = 17 years). I try, when possible, to keep a hold on giving those workers a hard time — so I made a self-deprecating joke to acknowledge the GameStop employee’s reaction and diffuse my own rising annoyance. As Mark Twain has said:

The human race has but one really effective weapon, and that is laughter

Mark Twain

Consensus Thinking = The Only Way Americans Can Think Thanks to Social Media

After that, he goes on to tell me that “there a no games out there that will take advantage of the PlayStation Pros power” (again, his words). That is a line used on social media to justify the outrage that people feel at Sony’s $699 price tag for the console. There are other commonplaces like “arrogant Sony” or PS3 “$599” debacle or other such “catchphrases” used in place of more xenophobic ideation which isn’t permissible in today’s society (note to self — or other academics — it would be interesting as an academic to investigate the language looking for ways in which xenophobia and racism is coded into using various “commonplaces” — arguments that stand in for other arguments).

However, Digital Foundry has already identified several games with which the power of the PlayStation 5 could really help out, in particular: Dragon’s Dogma 2 (a game I currently own, but am waiting for Christmas to play). It has a notorious reputation among PlayStation gamers for having a really inconsistent frame rate on top of visually gorgeous world (it looks stunning, but it doesn’t play well). Another game (same situation — I own it, but haven’t played it) is Final Fantasy Rebirth. Digital Foundry did a video on that one as well. Looking into the future, there are several titles that I’m interested in that could probably use the extra power of the PS5 Pro, but I’ll only list one: Crimson Desert. This is the game that I sort of have in the back of my mind as the poster child for why a PlayStation 5 Pro might be useful (even as the GameStop employee was talking). Will the game be pretty, yes, but will it run well on a 5 year old system (assuming a 2025 release — even older it slips into 2026)? I don’t think so — and based my experience since the Atari 2600 and up in generations, I’m looking for the best possible console experience that I can find — games, hardware, etc. (Slight digression: even if Microsoft hadn’t alienated me with the whole Halo debacle, I STILL wouldn’t have chosen the X-Box Series consoles because “more power” doesn’t mean raw performance — it’s an integration of form, function — and for games — experiences. Sony has ALWAYS been better at this than Microsoft has through ALL console generations, although it isn’t a given that this will always be the case).

However, to return to the thrust of the argument for this post — the GameStop employee’s attitude was very dismissive after making his assertion, almost daring me to say differently. With the video of Crimson Desert playing in the back of my mind, I just decided that the argument (in the rhetorical sense) wouldn’t work as he wasn’t willing to entertain any other notions than what SOCIAL MEDIA had told him: “PlayStation 5 Pro = bad” (I’d had a similar experience at the same GameStop years before when Bloodborne for PS4 was released and everyone went “ga-ga” over it and I canceled my preorder — the level confusion as to why I wouldn’t want to play what the internet called — at the time — “the bestest game ever from the bestest game company was truly something you’d have see to believe — although the same is now true of our “lord and master” Elden Ring).

The Group is ALWAYS Right (Even When It Isn’t) and NO COMPROMISE (aka The Customer is NEVER Right When They Go Against what “The Internet” Says)

Social Media (or the internet — which is just another commonplace for social sites like Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, and other places where people can post their opinions like the comments sections of news stories) allows non-experts to attain the level of “expert” without actually having to accrue any real knowledge or skills. Want to say you’re a movie reviewer, boom, set up a YouTube page and now you’re a reviewer. We don’t know if you have any previous movie industry experience (probably not), we don’t know if you have any real training, degrees, or skills in analyzing and understanding movie forms and functions, the historical significance of the movies you’re watching, or anything of that sort to become an “expert” in something. And because of this, opinions get increased to the level of facts. I don’t like something, and see all these other people don’t like it, so you’re a fool for liking it.

Well, there’s a name for that whole way of thinking: The Bandwagon Fallacy. This is a fault in argumentation where people assume that because others find something correct or incorrect, those people can’t be wrong — and as pretty much any social ill that I can think of, from genocide to apartheid to racism, and all the other “-sims” out there, yes, I’m pretty sure that a group can (and will) be wrong just as often as an individual could be.

The reason I didn’t feel the need to argue with the GameStop employee is that because even I might have a counterargument to the “no games will take advantage of the PS5 Pro” argument, he’s been conditioned by the internet (social media) not to take in alternate viewpoints or ideas and would have just argued back and it would have caused drama. How do I know?

Because of the final interaction where he tried to sell me the “protection plan” for the controller. I know that I’ve got about a year or two before I’ll need to buy another controller (that’s been the general lifespan of controllers for me with the PS5), and I’ll do so when I need to, so the protection doesn’t make sense for me. Rather than get into a long winded discussion, I politely declined and said, “no thank you, maybe next time” referring to the next time I come into the store I might purchase the plan on a future purchase. However, he had moved into a more confrontational stance — even though I had not — and chose to take my words for this particular transaction — perhaps to make the sale or make me change my mind, if we’re being charitable, but rather to emphasize that “I don’t want to see you in here again when you have broken controller, and you’re complaining to my that you’d like to do the protection plan because now it’s too late,” if we’re being honest. Remember, I’m an “idiot” for liking and wanting a PlayStation 5 Pro, and seeing value in the system. So, of course, let’s antagonize the person who is spending money at your store because you don’t like their choices — because their choices don’t agree with what “the internet” says is correct.

One Good Thing

There was one good thing that happened — although it too was a moment that made me reflect on the way certain people choose “patronizing” as choice in the customer service industry which then will affect the way that the customer chooses to interact with them. My mother put Call of Duty on pre-order for me at GameStop as I’ve moved away from actively spending money on it, so she does it for me. Well, she’d put money on a Call of Duty game that had already been released, but the clerks at GameStop had never moved the pre-order money over to the newest game (he said it was for Modern Warfare III from last year, but it was actually MW II from a year earlier based on the screenshot). So I told him to go ahead and move the money over to the newest game (BlackOps) which was already pre-ordered by my mother. Yes, he did also treat me like an “idiot” for having pre-order money on a game that was already released, but I’m going to call it a net “win” as now my mother won’t have to pay as much for the game as before.

Closing Thoughts

Will I go back to GameStop? Yes, probably, but not that one and only as a last resort. I would probably see if I could find what I was looking for at alternatives like Best Buy or Walmart from now on. I would also probably order online first (which is what I’ve normally done since around 2016 or so) even though I’d been trying to increase my traffic of local stores as they seem to be closing at an alarming rate. However, when I’m considering telling someone that I’m Dr. So-and-So with a PhD in Rhetoric and Composition and Film and that I’m pretty confident in my information, that’s usually an indication (to me — maybe not to others) that this isn’t a place that I need to be. If I have to rely on my PhD to justify that I’m a rational human being and that I’m worthy of respect just as they are — well, I think my time would be better spent elsewhere. It just makes me sad for all those without PhDs (or advanced degrees of any sort) to be dehumanized just because that’s what “the internet” says — and heaven forbid that we should think for ourselves and allow others to think for themselves.

The internet doesn’t tell me how to think — I tell me how to think — and that’s why I have a PhD and am a published writer (and have had a console for every generation since the Atari 2600). I think I’m doing just fine, “the internet” be damned.

SidneyCurrently Working On (September 2024)CreativeThe Runner (2023 Revision) (Fantasy Story: 4100 words: 17 Submissions)
Status: Out Finalist in the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award Contest Finalist in the LeVar Burton Reads Origins & Encounters Writing ContestDire (2024) (Fantasy Short Story: 5100 words: 1 Submission)
Status: Out (Out to Publisher–Contest–No Response — 125 out of 139 days, story not among finalists), Out (Out to Publisher — Apparition Lit (final submission period/issue).Scholarly How Nichelle Nichols’ Uhura Inspired the African American Female Character in Science Fiction (Chapter 3)
Space, the Feminist Frontier: Essays on Sex and Gender in Star Trek
Status: Published!Unnamed Book Chapter
Status: In-Progress