Pretty much every product ever made is reviewed somewhere on the internet but the review will only ever be as good as the reviewer and their context. This is not another blog about canoes but there is relevance as my touring boat (a Mad River Explorer 16) receives some fairly poor reviews on certain forums. But those reviews are from people looking to use it under different circumstances and are also clouded by the fact that a lot more people are willing to complain and write a poor review than a positive one.
The iPhone is another great example and my latest toy. My previous phone, the Nokia E71 was great for email, great for writing word documents but rubbish for just about everything else – particularly using twitter, facebook etc. Most reviews describe the E71 as a business phone, whilst the iPhone was usually reffered to as a toy or for play. In my opinion the reviews were based on the context of the reviewers. In their world, apps, social networks and web-surfing are not considered business activities – in mine they are important tools.
Personal opinion, relevance and context count for so much more than they are often credited with. Just because one person says something is great doesn’t mean it is right for everyone. We have so much choice available to us in so many areas – we should make the most of those choices.
And finally, having made the point about people preferring to write poor reviews – the above shows I am clearly in favour of my iPhone and I would also rate the Mad River a 5/5…
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