My mind associates thumbs up with accuracy

When I see comment sections like on YouTube or is it normal my feelings tend to associate upvotes with truthfulness and goodness and downvotes with untruthfulness and badness. The problem with this is that there are many untruths and bad things that get uprated, and many truths and good things that get downrated. Even still, my mind tends to associate anything that gets enough uprates as truthful and good and anything receiving downvotes and untrue and/or bad.

This has caused a lot of problems for me online. I have seen many comments stating an opinion of something and getting many thumbs up for it, and when I see it, I am automatically compelled to change my personal opinions to match the upvoted posts or put up a fight. I feel that I can only keep my opinion if I find people who share the same opinion as me getting equal thumbs up in a non-exclusive public area (by exclusive I mean as in places where people of specific interests congregate like how white supremacist racists congregate at Stormfront). I have become quite insecure of my ethnicity because I have seen many uprated racist comments against mine, and I also feel a bit uncomfortable listening to music from countries that have a lot of uprated hate comments against it. I can't watch some shows that I like because the uprated comments/reviews about it are negative. I felt a little uncomfortable enjoying some games after seeing that the review with the most support from the public was negative until I saw another positive review with roughly equal positive support.

I know this is illogical but it is really controlling my mind. Is this normal?

Voting Results
74% Normal
Based on 19 votes (14 yes)
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Comments ( 5 )
  • RegGuy

    So basically you are saying that you are influenced/controlled by other people and their opinions. That's normal, but it's not great. Better to figure out things on your own than listen to any bum off the street spout his opinion.

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  • Shrunk

    Not sure if troll or brilliant satire of typical YouTube users

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  • Treehugger29

    You tend to adapt your opinion to suit that of others: I sincerely recommend that you stand for what you believe is good/bad, form your own opinion.

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  • RoseIsabella

    Thumbs up is more about approval and acceptance than truth or correctness. To help you find perspective and not be overly persuaded by whether or not comments get the thumbs up try to pictures middle school kids in their rooms pushing the buttons.

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  • Couman

    On some level that's normal, but you make it sound like you're WAY more strongly influenced by this than an average person would be. Many times I see upvoted comments and instead think "Wow, how can so many people be idiots". Especially when it's a political or ethical opinion. But if it's a simple factual statement e.g. "Actually squirrels are rodents", I would be inclined to believe or disbelieve it based on the votes.

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