Over on Reddit, where else, there is a subreddit dedicated to one-star reviews. It’s a concept that reflects a growing cause-and-effect phenomenon (you sow, we reap) and is being amplified across social media, with other subgroups elsewhere—Instagram and TikTok, to name a few—also collating what now appears to be a boundless source of amusement… and revenue.
Given that everyone has an opinion, and voices it, the idea is amusing to a degree and may have a future, but in a mercurial social media environment where internauts like myself have fleeting curiosity and/or short attention spans, time will decide when tastes in amusement change and other quirky or bizarre social media idiosyncrasies replace current sources of amusement or interest.
But, in the meantime, from Amazon to TripAdvisor and beyond, we all do it; we’ve all left what we consider perfectly relevant reviews. After all, why ask for reviews if not to measure a person’s likability* or a brand’s space in the market? I try not to abuse one-star reviews because, in the spirit of doing unto others…, they are supposed to serve a genuine purpose: that of alerting readers to a genuine issue. For example, I recently purchased a footrest for my home office desk. As it’s ergonomy 101, I went on to Amazon, sought out a suitable footrest, and purchased it. It arrived, and I started making the most of it until one day, three weeks after purchasing the said footrest, I heard a crack, and the footrest broke in two.
* On Instagram, a person said, “Put a photo in a post and no one cares; put the same photo in a reel and count the views. It’s because, while people may not like you or care who you are, they are nonetheless watching you”.
At about the same time as this happened, Amazon sent out one of their frequent post-purchase botmails asking me if I’d like to submit a review on articles I’d purchased recently. It just so happens that I did. Entitled “Cheap and Plastic,” the review, in about 10 words, explained that I knew that I was buying something cheap and plastic. I just didn’t expect it to break three weeks after purchasing it. A fair enough appraisal, I thought, objective, on point, and, as I saw it, a long way from some Amazon one-star reviews you can read.
Audience And Reception
One question to consider is whether authors of one-star reviews are aware of or even care that others may be using their reviews as a source of amusement and, thanks to advertising, a potential revenue gain, or whether they realize that they are a part of a larger phenomenon and have the power to influence others and purposefully seek to harm targeted people or micro-businesses, who are frequently unable to counter detrimental and utterly disjointed social media behaviour.
Comparable to what in my trade we refer to as malware or a DDoS attack, here the “hackers” review has the potential to impact a business activity devoid of the necessary resources of bigger enterprises or corporations to contain and counter such attacks.
Having co-owned and ran a restaurant a long time ago, long before social media, I shake my head when reading some of the one-star reviews about restaurants and I imagine professionals and ex-professionals alike shake theirs when reading reviews about their respective trades. Some of the reviews may be justified and documented (no smoke without a fire, etc.), some are debatable, and some are unjustifiable, perhaps stemming from pure petulance.
The irony of it all, fortunately, is that reviews, whether unfavourable, unflattering, or simply annoying, whether done purposefully or not, produce entertainment, whether questionable or not, for others. In the end, you could argue that it’s Karma’s way of bringing harmony where none, or the exact opposite, was intended.
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Comments: These posts offer a personal, distinctive, and hopefully positive point of view. In an effort to improve the reader experience, constructive comments are always welcome; all other comments will be assessed.
Albatross133 
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