Sophomaniac: an individual who thinks he is extremely intelligent
Be careful if you’re not a sofomaniac or have one nearby. These people do not know how to recognize their intellectual limitations and are capable of defending their opinion until death no matter how wrong they are, because for them, their knowledge is far above average. Social networks abound.
If you’re not the sofomaniac, then you’ve probably met someone on the networks who loves a fight in the comment boxes. For them, your knowledge and ideas outweigh any historical, psychological, demographic or statistical data presented by the counterpart. The fact is that the sophomaniac believes they are right about everything.
We mention the word stupid in the title of this post as synonymous with ignorant. For sophomaniacs do not have the necessary knowledge to give a proper opinion on a fact and yet they talk and argue. The curious thing is that they do not seek to fill themselves with sustained knowledge and to put together deep arguments. On the contrary, their opinions are based on value judgments without going into detail about what is being discussed.
Especially on the level of ideology, there are many sophomaniacs. Whether political, social or gender, ideologies become the focus of very hot topics on Facebook and Twitter, and during the debates, there is no one to gain from them. Especially when those debating are all sophomaniacs, it’s impossible for anyone to take any lessons from these disputes.
When it comes to politics, religion, sexuality and social movements, everyone thinks they are right and no one is willing to listen to the other side. The terrible thing is that, in a space as wide as social networks, we are losing the capacity for dialogue and debate. Each party wants their idea to win and they are not willing to question the ideas to see which one can really stand on its own.
Extremist and prejudiced positions threaten the progress we have already made as a society. We all have the right to think differently, even if our opinion is not supported by facts, however, if we do not have arguments we do not have to seek to impose our opinion as a truth on others with rudeness and arrogance.
When you meet a sofomaniac on social networks, you’re likely to be tempted to spread your point of view or insult him, or both. If you do this, you are not too far from being considered a sofomaniac as well. Remember, to learn new things we have to be open to listening.
All the knowledge we have today has not been generated by a single head, on the contrary, it is the product of thousands of minds over the centuries. What makes you think that others are more stupid than you?
Also, keep in mind that nothing erases what you post on the Internet. And now that you know what a sofomaniac is, don’t use it to go and say it as an insult in the comment box to someone who doesn’t agree with you.