A friend of The Grasshopper recently posted an opinion on social media – for this narrative, neither the content nor the platform matter – to which some bright spark commented, ‘Get some help’. My friend replied ’Get some education’. In the derivatives market, a tradeable instrument is derived from some underlying asset. The derivative may be: a future – the price of wheat come harvest-time, for example; an option – perhaps an agreed price for optionally buying crude oil in December; a swap – an agreement for future exchange of assets; or any number of more ‘exotic’ instruments.
Now then, before social media people shared their opinions with friends and family, others who didn't want to hear walked away, now an opinion of any quality is instantly spread like a disease, hence " going viral". But people are also emboldened by finding like minded opinions out there,which may also be of doubtful quality. I have lost count of how many Facebook debates I've seen start by an off the cuff opinion, people get competitive with winning the debate, using the biggest words they can think of. It's a form of display behaviour and people think their rubbish actually counts for something, the point is that there is no way they would do this in person as the chance of actual humiliation is very real, social media offers anonymity for the rubbish that spills out of people's minds, that's why it's so easy to bully on media because you can't get thumped for being a twat
Now then, before social media people shared their opinions with friends and family, others who didn't want to hear walked away, now an opinion of any quality is instantly spread like a disease, hence " going viral". But people are also emboldened by finding like minded opinions out there,which may also be of doubtful quality. I have lost count of how many Facebook debates I've seen start by an off the cuff opinion, people get competitive with winning the debate, using the biggest words they can think of. It's a form of display behaviour and people think their rubbish actually counts for something, the point is that there is no way they would do this in person as the chance of actual humiliation is very real, social media offers anonymity for the rubbish that spills out of people's minds, that's why it's so easy to bully on media because you can't get thumped for being a twat