50 Times A Comment Was So Good, It Made Its Way Onto This Facebook Group

Bored Panda was interested in getting Ariane's opinion on the secret to writing powerful and funny internet comments, as well as how to stand out from the crowd. In her mind, originality lies at the core of this.

"Surprising people with a comment they haven't heard before and won't have thought of is key. But don't be so leftfield that people don't get your humor, and are instead left scratching their heads!" she explained to us that comments have to strive to be unique while at the same time avoiding being too bizarre.

As for why people enjoy writing comments on the internet, it all comes down to the desire for attention and the need to be social.

"They get their writing seen by more people than would ever see it otherwise, and they get to be part of their favorite communities. I used to comment under a popular Twitter confessions account called @fesshole and my tweets did the numbers above and beyond my tweets on my own Twitter profile," Ariane shared with us.

Meanwhile, if you ever find yourself in an argument on social media (or wanting to get into one), there's one main thing to consider: get your facts straight and use them.

British comedy expert Ariane opened up to us that she has been in lots of arguments on Twitter in the past. "Increasingly few these days, as I don't have the time, but some very funny ones," she said.

"To win a Twitter argument, use hard facts, link to your sources, and end with a funny one-liner as a mic drop. Boom!"

The ‘Comments’ Facebook page has over 37k followers and describes itself as featuring “the funniest comments YouTube has to offer.” However, YouTube comments are far from the only thing that fans of the page get to enjoy.

There’s a vast range of internet comments to choose from, including from your favorite social media platforms, websites, and subreddits. There’s a bit of everything for everyone, and it’s part of the reason why the page is as successful as it is.

The other part of the popularity equation is the fact that the content is downright hilarious. We’ve been snorting with laughter ever since we discovered the ‘Comments’ Facebook page.

Sifting for comedy gold in online comment sections isn’t for the faint of heart. With power comes great responsibility, but with online anonymity sometimes comes bile and vile thoughts. When someone knows that they’re unlikely to be punished for what they write, they might start spouting a lot of ideas that they wouldn’t normally voice in polite company.

Meanwhile, some take it as an opportunity to troll others, baiting folks to reply, feeding off their anger and misery.

Aside from obvious trolls and toxic internet users, you then have your run-of-the-mill comments that simply express how the person feels about the topic. Some people—and this might shock some of you Pandas—even rush to comment after just glancing at the headline without reading the article. [Dramatic gasp!] Imagine that!

The rarest comments are those that make people laugh. Whether someone wrote a quick quip in a flash or spend half an hour crafting the perfect response, we’ll never know. But the end result is that they spread a bit of joy and made someone crack up on the other side of the globe. And that’s a type of superpower.

Whether or not you think someone is making a lot of sense in the comment section of whatever article you might be reading, just remember that you should be very careful trusting any piece of information that you find online. Relying on trusted sources and cross-checking suspicious-sounding facts are both keys to steering clear of misinformation.

Bored Panda previously spoke about media literacy with Lee McIntyre, a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. He stressed that people are more likely to believe the information that gets repeated the most often.

"Repetition is important in making us believe things, whether they are true or not. There is a cognitive bias called the 'illusory truth effect' which is when we are repeatedly exposed to false information over and over and, over time, it begins to seem more plausible," Lee explained to us.

"Social psychologists have known since the 1960s that repetition works, for truth or falsity. In fact, this idea goes back to Plato who said that it didn't hurt to repeat a true thing. And of course, for falsehood, this was one of the main propaganda tactics in Nazi Germany, where Hitler's propaganda minister understood the 'repetition effect.'"

Even if someone is aware of how human psychology works doesn’t make them immune to mistakes. Lee from Boston University gave an example of how this works in daily life: "I understand cognitive bias, yet last election season I kept seeing signs for the same candidate running for local office around my town. I thought, 'Wow, I guess everyone is voting for her.' It turns out I was just walking my dog in the neighborhood where she lived, and her friends and neighbors had up lots of signs! So I fooled myself."

We might feel a desire to double-check every single fact to avoid falling prey to fake news or propaganda. However, doing this would be absolutely exhausting and nearly impossible to maintain if you have any serious responsibilities like work, school, taking care of your family, etc. And Lee agrees. You have to tackle the search for truth in a strategic way.

"It would be exhausting to fact check every single news item we hear. In fact, insisting on this degree of skepticism is something that demagogues use to get us to be cynical, because when we doubt that it is possible to know the truth—even when it is staring us in the face—we are riper to their manipulation. So I'd say the best thing with news is to do a little investigation into finding a reliable source," the expert said.

"Look for an organization that does investigative journalism (and doesn't just repeat information from other sources), double sources its quotations, discloses conflicts of interest, etc. Once we've found that we can relax a bit and trust the reporting behind the stories. Do we still need to be on guard? Yes. Even The New York Times can make mistakes. Or individual reporters can have biases. But that doesn't mean 'all sources are equal.'"

According to Lee, media literacy is something that people should definitely pay more attention to. "There are various sources for media literacy that can help. They teach this to KIDS in Finland! It's easy to learn. Is the story copyrighted? Is it dated? Is there a byline? Are other stories by the author solid? Is it published in a source that has been reliable in the past? Does it seem plausible— if not then you can do some research," he shared some of the things that we should be asking ourselves.

"Will we get fooled sometimes in doing this? Yes. But we're going to get fooled sometimes anyway. It's analogous to how scientists form their beliefs. They are skeptics, but they also—at some point when the evidence is sufficient—give their assent. Scientists deal with warrant, not 'proof.' They are what philosophers call 'fallibilists.' You give your belief to things that are well-sourced with evidence, while always holding out the possibility that if further evidence comes to light that contradicts your belief, you should give it up because you might be wrong."