Bloody hell Pumpkins, we’re not 10 days into 2015 and we’re accosted by a gag-inducing neologism. The invented word comes from a new travel review app called ‘HeyLets,’ which raises what they call the controversial topic, “Should travel-related websites eliminate all negative reviews?”
The word is ‘posi-mendation’ - defined as a “positive recommendation directly from locals with similar interests.”
1st question: did we need this new word?
2nd question: isn’t the very definition of ‘recommendation’ inherently positive?
HeyLets claims to be the world’s 1st travel review app to accept only positive reviews. No pictures of bathtub mold here dahrlings, no hookers in the hallways or bugs in the buffet. The HeyLets PR offensive rails against a ‘negativity bias’ on travel review sites that is causing users to miss out on ‘potentially magical travel experiences.’
Oh, puh-lease. They even trot out the research psychologists, who blather that because negativity creates a greater electrical surge in our brains, we require 5 times more positivity than negativity in order for the positive to outweigh the negative.
I’m all for accentuating the positive Pumpkins – just ask my surgeon, waxer and lingerie engineer – but when it comes to reviews, I’ll wade through the good and bad myself. And if a vegetarian hated the steak house, I’ll somehow chew through the gristle in my search for the truth.
Speaking of truth, it’s curious to see the solidarity offered to the sacred art of journalism in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo atrocity. Even newsletters that fully adhere to the HeyLets philosophy of posi-mendations are making a strong stand for freedom of expression. It’s a new year indeed.
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité my brothers and sisters!
