Jeremy Paxman is getting ratty at the moment. At the Hay festival this weekend, he called TV viewers “a bunch of barbarians”. He continued: “Watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in this country now. I find this very depressing.” However, after this weekend, I think he’s got it wrong. Britain’s Got Talent, like Big Brother, shows what the Number One Leisure Activity In Britain really is… and that’s passing comment on a show you haven’t even seen. This weekend, thanks to the Britain’s Got Talent final, social networking sites were overloaded with commentary from people watching… however, in equal numbers, there were those that decided they pass judgement in a sniffy way, talking about how much they weren’t watching it, like you can quantify how much you don’t do something.

Related: Is anyone else feeling alienated by Britain’s Got Talent?

If Britain’s Got Talent is perceived by some to be an empty vessel, loudly heralding the talentless noise, then those that continually Tweet and update Facebook statuses are missing the real rub that, continually bemoaning the state of a show you’re not watching without any imagination or real wit is ten times more irritating and pointless than Susan Boyle singing a song. The steady stream of faux-snob bullshit that emits from the naysayers is equally, or more, pointless than the shows they chastise.

Taking a pop at shows like these is like shooting cows in stairwell. We all know how bad these shows can be and we all know how cynically they are made. I’ve felt increasingly alienated by the show, thanks mostly to the fact I just don’t ‘get’ it. I really dislike the judges on it too. I really don’t like the fact that there’s no escape from ‘em either. However, I still prefer the all-singing and dancing irritant to the Web 2.0 sniping of people assuming they don’t like it.

It doesn’t really happen in any other medium. People will say “I just heard the new Oasis single and, predictably, it’s rubbish” which is fair enough. You’ve partaken. You’ve at least listened once. However, with Big Brother and TV Talent Shows, people refuse to tune in as a point of principal, yet still whine and moan. It seems that there’s a really strong feeling of… “I dare not tune in case I smile at least once… my cover will be well and truly blown!”

These people aren’t doing something really high-brow as an alternative. They’re sat online, their chests swelling with self-pride at how they’re sticking it to The Man And His Lame TV Shows… when really, being some internet warrior is even more pathetic than sitting down with a bunch of mates getting drunk whilst watching Diversity dance around like Autobots from Harlem.

A lot of these people identify with cynicism. At various points in the weekend, quite a few people were linking to Charlie Brooker articles to point out how rubbish these shows are. The revelled in the mock-intellectualism of quoting someone from a broadsheet newspaper. I am cooler than the schmuvvers watching that tawdry skid-stain. What did Charlie Brooker Tweet? “Rather enjoyed [Diversity]. Liked the robot bit. They should do a show where they form that shape for an hour and smash up a polystyrene city,” as well as an excited “BRING IT ON!”

See, BGT and Big Brother may well be lowest common denominator TV, but then again, eating crisps and burgers is lowest common denominator food, and we all like chowing down on tat. It seems, with most Social Networking Critics that the belly is allowed to fatten, but the brain isn’t… which of course, is a complete nonsense.

The point being missed really, is that it’s so much more fun to watch something and then slag it off. We all like getting irritated now and again and shouting into the internet vacuum in the vanity soaked hope that someone might ReTweet or give a Facebook ‘Thumbs Up’. It’s a petty victory, but it provides brief, futile joy… much like farting and blaming it on the dog. Passing comment on something you know nothing about is plain boring, lazy and unimaginative… which is far worse than anything TV ever throws out.