One of my good friends from high school visited me the other weekend. We found that we've not only grown to have very similar views on how people interact with one another, but that we have taken that passion and created pretty similar blogs.
His most recent entry reflects a conversation we had that weekend and is one I feel like I deserve to be co-author of. In it, he talks about a negative feedback mechanism for bad drivers.
But what if we took this concept a step further? Why should it be limited to cars? People constantly display rude behavior on subways, on the sidewalk, in elevators, at restaurants, on their cell phones.
Think about a site like eBay that monitors itself and its own members and, presumably, build a stronger community because people can leave feedback for one another that is visible to other users.
In society in general, this doesn't exist. If you showed up to work and you car was covered in paint, your co-workers and boss would know you were an asshole. But how can we take that concept and broaden it? How can we penalize negative behavior, but honestly the bigger opportunity, how can we collectively reward positive behavior beyond just the highway?
If someone holds the elevator for me when I'm clearly running late, wouldn't it be great if I could give them the equivalent of a gold star, one that would be visible to others? It is similar to the Red Cross giving you a sticker that says "Be nice to me, I donated blood today".
And of course, if some moron closes the elevator on me, shouldn't I be able to debit his kindness quotient?
No comments:
Post a Comment