Your opinion is not as equally valid as somebody else's.

If you recommend a book, for example, and all you ever read is Twilight and The Hunger Games, your opinion doesn't count for as much as someone who's read Tolstoy, Goethe, Conrad, Dumas, Hugo, Lawrence, Rowling, Tolkien, Atwood, Lem, Palahniuk, King, Twain, Orwell, Shelley, and various other authors.

If you saw a movie, and you thought it was amazing, better than the other handful of movies you've vegetated to on your TV screen, your opinion doesn't count for as much as a cinephile's, who's watched everything from Fellini to Hitchcock to Coppola to Spielberg to Kubrick to Ratner to Bay to X, Y, and Z.

You buy a new album on a whim because the cover looks pretty and you happen to love the music and you think it's the most amazing music ever made. Great. But if all you ever listen to is pop or rock or Sound X, your opinion really isn't that important. What are you comparing that album to? To the smidgen of soundscapes you've encountered in your life. Your opinion is pretty much irrelevant.

I don't care that you feel left out, or that you feel stupid, or that you want people to pay as much attention to your mind farts as those who actually know and understand a medium. Behave like a grown-up and keep quiet if you're out of your depth. At most, you're allowed to say, "Oh, I enjoyed that," or, "Oh, that was boring." Feel free to ask questions. Please do, in fact. -philes love to talk about their passion. BUT:

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO:

• throw a tantrum
  
• demand that everyone pay as much heed to your opinion as the person that knows the medium
  
• sulk
  
• hurl insults
  
• run to mommy and daddy

...

Etc.

Okay, I'm done. Got most of it out. Felt good. As you were.

P.S. The same principle applies to videogames.