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They went to a poetry reading, but they got bored and restless. As far as they were concerned, it was for the birds. They left.

As far as I am concerned, the expression really means “based on my knowledge”, but in the sentence above it does not seem to mean this, does it?

I’m also wondering if this expression is used when not talking about humans. I have heard things like “as far as their economy is concerned” and so forth.

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  • They were concerned about the so-called poetry reading up to a certain point. Beyond it, they stopped being concerned, that point is "as far as" they were concerned.
    – Masked Man
    Commented Mar 28, 2014 at 18:32
  • @Happy: You are mistaken. In this context, as far as has nothing to do with "how far/how much" those specific people care - the implied "limit" is simply to underline that their opinion isn't to be taken as one shared by many others (it doesn't necessarily extend to other people's opinions).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 28, 2014 at 22:55
  • It was a joke, mocking the unnecessary use of a verbose phrase instead of a simple one. "In their opinion, it was for the birds." would have conveyed the meaning well enough, even to people slightly less versed with English. Instead the author decides that he wants to sound smart.
    – Masked Man
    Commented Mar 29, 2014 at 2:29

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"As far as they were concerned..." means "In their opinion..."

"As far as I'm concerned, this poetry stinks." is equivalent to saying "In my opinion, this poetry stinks."

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“Based on my knowledge” is not far off the mark. It also means based on my feelings or experience. So, as relaxing says, in this context it's equivalent to saying it was their opinion that the experience was for the birds.

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  • -1 because I think OP's “Based on my knowledge” is way off the mark. The difference here is the same as that between “For all I know” and “For all I care”, which really do not convey the same thing.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Mar 28, 2014 at 22:51

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