Faking it

I'm not getting at anyone in particular on here, but I have a new bugbear of the month. Useless feedback. I take feedback seriously. Whether it's positive or negative, I don't really mind. Over the years I've had some great feedback from people who know what they're talking about and have something to say, people who have told me what I've done well, and what bits I've done wrong, and what I can do to correct my mistakes. I've also had some poor feedback... you know the kind of thing, "That's nice," "Okay," and so on. This is the kind of feedback that is totally worthless, and at best comes across as insincere. It makes me wonder what the point was in saying anything in the first place. Are you feigning interest? Do you think my work (or even me) is boring? If so, why didn't you say so?

This seems to happen a lot when we're kids. We ask our parents what they think about our work (and let's face it, a lot of what we produce in those early years isn't the best material), and our parents say "That's pretty!" even if you've just smeared paint all over a sheet of paper. Sometimes I wish I had just smeared paint over a piece of paper to see what the reaction would be. Parents seem to be hard wired to not criticise their children's work in an honest way. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it isn't? As a child you believe what you're told, and if you're told you're good at something when in fact you're mediocre, you're in for a bit of a shock in later life.

The problem I have now is that I still get meaningless feedback, and I really don't know what to do with it. It's annoying because I don't know whether to take it positively or negatively. I always take the time to say what I think. I rarely think "That's nice," I often have lots of mixed emotions about what I'm looking at or reading, and I try to point out things that do or don't work for me. If a piece of writing confuses me, that's what I'll say. If a picture makes me want to spend time gazing at it, I like to point out which bits draw my attention. My comments are my observations and responses, not just a lame acknowledgement that implies I haven't really made any effort to comprehend what I'm seeing or hearing. Why fake it? If I think it's boring, I'll either say it's boring and give reasons, or not say anything at all. Why waste my time writing "Okay," and waste the artist's time reading meaningless comments?