In my very poetic vision of things – or call it naiveness if you wish – internet shall be a place where people from across the globe coexist peacefully together, no matter from what geographical, cultural or religious background one belongs to.

In the current social media era though, it feels very much the opposite: for whatever reason, any discussion topic can easily generate an aggressive tone.

Welcome to hate talk.

There’s an abundant “if you hold a different opinion, you are against me and we must hate each other” kind of attitude.

This is more than evident as I write these lines. With the ongoing political turmoil unfolding in Hong Kong, online discussions are polarized to the point that whatever your stance and comment, chances are your thoughts will get twisted and you will get heavy fire from the opposite corner who will hate you and greet you with the best of their repertoire of offensive language.

Let’s talk about photography instead

Measuring Light is about photography, so let’s not get side tracked. But still – and this is the reason I’m writing this post – these days online photography discussions are peppered by lots of hate talk as well.

Example? How about the common hatred towards Leica?

It’s a snobbish brand, it’s not worth the money, it’s for people who get the camera just to show-off, it’s a fashion statement and not for real photographers, Canon and Nikon are cheaper and far superior, …

You will read a lot of this in online forums and photo blogs. Interestingly though, most of the Leica haters had never owned or used a Leica. Talk about emotion over reason.

The latest war: sensor size

With Fuji GFX medium format system in full swing and other brands such as Canon, Nikon, Sony and Panasonic betting on full frame, there has been an escalating war for megapixel count and sensor size.

It’s a good discussion up to some point. I often question myself the added values of medium format and if it’s worth the investment and extra weight on my backpack. Out of curiosity, I even published my own sensor size comparison test here.

If you ask me, everything is relative and there is no straight answer to this. And, at the end of the day, after measuring the pros & cons of each system, it all depends on your needs and your type of photography.

But again, what I can’t stand is the hate talk associated with this, with people who are not interested in understanding and accepting facts as they are, and prefer to adopt a tunnel vision combined with a hard to understand brand loyalty and / or hatred.

While one can legitimately hold its own opinion towards whatever topic, the one thing I don’t understand is the harsh tone adopted on doing so.

Why can’t netizens discuss things objectively, without angriness and with good manners?

Would these people talk to each other like this in a face-to-face situation?

Let’s stop this nonsense once and for all.