I have been recently pondering over the notion of Trust and Internet. A friend of mine was underlining the fact that things could get sour with our website concept. She was trying to get someone to do a bit of work for her flat but dark thoughts stopped her from using Karmawish. I can understand why she thinks this way. But I think cautiousness shouldn’t be a hurdle in what we want to do. It should be an ally.
One thing that always amazed me is EBay and its mechanisms. Send me the money and I’ll send you the goods. How fishier could this be? But it works! Why so? Maybe for two reasons: one obvious one more unconscious. My credibility will be compromised if I fail to deliver. As an after effect, I won’t be able to use this system anymore. I’ll have trouble gaining others’ trust and won’t be able to make as much money if I play with this trust. The second one I feel is more hidden. To me it refers to the psychological need we have to be trusted. Being the recipient of trust is empowering and a feel good factor somehow.
Take a look at Couchsurfing now that I use from time to time. What makes a 22 year old Danish girl come to my house to sleep when she never ever spoke to me in person, experienced how I would look at her, know how I could react after a couple of glass of wine? Is it about being reckless? Just having faith in mankind?
Trusting someone is a bit like letting go of control and wait to see what the recipient will make of it. Ultimately it’s about asking the question: Are you able to respect someone you know nothing of?
I think trust is a wonderful mechanism that makes us believe all is not so gloomy and disheartening down here. Despite all we can see on the media, all this ruthlessness some men live by, it is still common and natural for a lot to care for others and help when they can. Somehow I feel trust is just like hope except it’s a fulfilled hope so something even mightier.
This being said I am also realistic and know that some are plain malevolent people. That’s why especially for women you shouldn’t meet a stranger at your place unaccompanied. But isn’t that common sense instead?
What do you think? Do you trust people over the Internet?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I absolutely agree! I mean, just speaking from experience here…I wouldn’t have met with a stranger in Paris, if I hadn’t trusted you to be a good guy
I always prefer to trust people and so far I have been disappointed only very few times.
And that’s why I believe that karmawish can work out brilliantly, even has so far for me
I once believed in trust over the internet, because I had a small community over the internet when I was at faculty and after I had a job, my time on that community has decreased, I wasn’t spending much time on it as I always had.
So I had to find some one to manage it for me, there were 3 people that I had almost complete trust in them, which I gave the admin power to one of them, to get a complain from one of the members in the same week that he had his account deleted, well that guy I trusted deleted all the members’ accounts inculding myself and changed the admin password as well