I think people misunderstand why others do seem to get upset about downvotes. While younger kids may indeed care about the numerical point system itself, adults can use it in a different way. As we get older and become more active members of society, we form expectations and predictions about how we interact with people. We learn what individuals and groups approve and disapprove of. We filter ourselves as appropriate. Downvotes=disapproval. /u/rebrownd is confused about why his post was disapproved of. He doesn't understand why he received a negative reaction. The reddit platform simply allows him to see and quantify that disapproval. But when he replies, instead of naming that disapproval as the source of his confusion, he simply names what he and everybody else sees most directly: the downvotes.

When you get disapproval from a group, especially as anonymous as this, you get to wondering what else you're doing in real life that people disapprove of, things people aren't telling you. In life there is no vote system to let you know. You only see consequences that you may never attribute causes to...people stop talking to you, people treat you differently, you aren't included in activities, etc. This platform can give you some real information on the effect of your ideas, absent the delivery involved with your face, voice, and body.

Sometimes you say something knowing it's controversial, but you sacrifice the approval in order to stand behind some greater principle you care about. Other times you are just doing your own thing, not thinking you're going to make any waves. Disapproval in the latter situation comes as a shock and causes confusion. That's what this is.

So...I wrote a lot. Didn't expect to. It just bugs me when people talk about "caring about downvotes." It's like, come on, you have to be able to see the bigger picture here. Deep down you know exactly what is really going on. Let's stop being willful idiots about this kind of stuff.