One of the best parts of competing is the prizes. Everyone loves to win, and the feeling of victory is immortalized when a giant trophy is placed in your hands along with a large monetary sum. But for those who don’t win, a feeling of bitterness and defeat lingers long after they go home.

The participation ribbon seems like the perfect palliation to pains of defeat, but has anyone ever stopped to consider what people actually think about those small colorful banners they’re handing out? Imagine showing the ribbon to your parents. The excitement quickly wears off once they turn it around and find that it reads, “Participant”!

It is exactly this attitude that makes participation ribbons utterly useless. Prizes are meant to be something special, which is why you feel good after winning one. But if everybody gets a participation ribbon as a sort of “prize,” then they are not special because everybody has one.

Money and materials also are probably wasted on participation prizes that could be devoted to more useful efforts, such as making actual prizes.

Participation ribbons truly are the most useless things on the planet. Why would people want something that reminds them that they participated in something, anyway? A competition of any sort can provide many excellent memories, and these memories are really all you need.