In 1995, while half of the American society were in various forms of discussions about whether or not O.J. Simpson had a hand in murder, eBay was created.
Within the essay, Reading, Writing and Ratings at eBay.com, Knobel and Lankshear give explicit detail about literacy in the form of feedback. By watching eBay, one gets a first hand look on how an Internet community can and could work.
For eBay to run smoothly, it partly depends on its' community to behave civil as though it's functioning in the real world. eBay tries to get this to occur by setting up a rating system that consists of selections that include a positive, neutral and the dreaded negative review of an user. As the essay states, the rating is used to rate "the reputation, trustworthiness and reliability of a person." With the leaving of a negative rating, it could in the future impact the sales of the particular seller or buyer. The person making the rating could also leave further feedback in the form of the written reply and with this, conflicts may appear.
There are individuals who would purposedly leave negative feedback even though the buying experience was relatively a positive one. Or the seller could slander a buyer for reasons of their own. Wherein our society uses money to make certain things happen, on eBay, ratings get a person to an other level. And it mostly rests on which side of the coin the feedback rests.
But another issue appears. With people hiding behind online personas, it makes some a bit harsher, meaner, and downright horrible to others in the same creative space - and eBay is not exempt from this. The social practices shown upon eBay between 'eBayers' is sometimes a place of well-being and at others, uncomfortableness. And with the ability of users to go beyond with harsh words, it's a much more common feat to tackle because they are not facing the other person in a physical world (of which will be displayed within various forms of feedback).
The different forms of literacies and social practices shown upon eBay is quite a learning experience that should probably be the front runner for an example of how life online could be.
posted by Nadia at 10:46 PM
2 Comments:
In my expereince talking to various sellers, I noticed that the majority of them tried to workout problems. In most cases, the consumer was quick to judge and wanted an easy solution. Perhaps, buyers want their item as soon as possible (a sort of instant gratification).
7:19 AM
So there remains an issue of trust -whether or not folks on the internet are just clowning around or out to cause trouble; and the issue of whether people will be less accountable (do more unreasonable things) because they are annonymous. And despite these two fears -- eBay has bezillions of users.
So what do we know about whether these are just fears -- or whether they actually make eBay a "dangerous" place to do business. And how can we find out? Will being savvy users of digital spaces protect us?
You know what? I don't know. So how are we going to figure this out?
I guess one question I forgot to spend time on in class was -- does the feedback system work? Does it really predict "safe" buying/selling experiences?
6:39 PM
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