Hello, my name is Amadeo. I’m 31 years old and I’m from Madrid, Spain.
I like to think I’m honest and straightforward in my daily life; and I’m going to try to write this post on the same principles. I’m also going to try to make it different. Because I’m different. And why I say so? Let me explain myself.
First of all, I’d like to remark that I didn’t heard about Connect Live before I got an email a month ago saying I was invited to California. So, all my reviews and contributions as a Local Guide are pure and simple altruism. But I think (and I hope) is altruism what moves almost every person to share on GoogleMaps. So I’m not feeling special for doing it.
What do I like to share on GoogleMaps?
Taking a quick look on my profile, you’d notice that most of my contributions are reviews of restaurants.
I’m what they currently called as a foodie; that years ago was called a gourmand (I’m a glutton as well) Therefore, I used GoogleMaps as a tool to find that new cool asiatic-fusion place or an old bistro serving genuine home-made food.
Due to my job, I usually eat out, giving me plenty of chance to write reviews. Also when I’m travelling for fun, my search for new restaurants is frenetic. I don’t trust so much recommendations from locals, so I always compare the suggestions with online reviews.
I think none of this makes me special, either. However, neither selflessly helping others nor bragging about my sumptuous dinner are the reason why I make the effort of writing a review.
I just write them for the pure and plain pleasure of criticizing. Naturally, always following Google policy and “Tips to write reviews”. And when I say criticize, I don’t mean deliberately attacking a restaurant. I’m saying with respect and fairness; from a constructive criticism approach; and also a little bit of good humor, if possible.
You might already heard about or be familiar with: Everybody judges. All the time.
In our daily life, we spend countless hours judging, criticizing and complaining about politics, jobs, sports, etc… Criticism is innate in humans. And we do it many times without any reason or purpose, without target or reward. We do it just for fun, for the simple fact of freely expressing our opinion. In Spain, we even say that “criticize is national sport”.
Through the anonymity that provides internet, I use GoogleMaps as a platform to put into words my most sincere subjective opinion; and that makes me feel pleasure.
I repeat that I try to be as fair and respectful as I can be in my reviews. Many people would say I’m just a troll or a hater, but most of my reviews are positive; and if I’m going to remark a negative aspect of a dinner, I make an effort to explain the reasons why.
To conclude, and not less important, I would like to mention that I also like to “leave a mark” with my reviews. In that way, after a long time, I can read them back, and let them recall old memories and experiences. Somehow, they’re like a journal to me, where I capture moments of my life, to be able to re-read them in the future.
I hope I didn’t bore you.
Amadeo
