MODERN LIFE, CHINA Commentary: Mobile Trust
By Lianne Li
“So on second thought I’ve decided to tell you. I’m going to quit school on the 30th.”
No shock, please. It happened when February hadn’t yet left and you only had to check the calendar to discover that it was just another one of those junk jests you get on your mobile phone before pressing the delete button.
The fact was I and my roommates had sent this short message to all acquaintances in our phonebooks. We saw it as only a small harmless trick. To prove it, soon a reply came to my phone: “Wow! I’ll hopefully marry on that day!”
But in my heart I was hoping for some dullards. Just at that moment my close friend Juan’s reply came: “What’s up?”
I giggled. Knowing me better than any other friend, she would be the surest that I was not about to quit the college of my choice since early high school.
“Check the date,” I reminded her. But she stuck fast. I was defeated and confessed straight away with an apology that it was just a joke.
Instead of an expected laugh, a furious message struck back at me on the tiny screen: “How could you cheat me so?”
I was dumbfounded, never had I thought that what I did was anything like cheating. To make it worse, another friend called to tell me she almost suffered a heart attack when she saw the message. Shocked myself now, I sent explanations to everyone only to receive more and more “How could you cheat me so?” messages.
Disaster doesn’t travel alone. It seemed the other girls suffered the same fate. Soon, regretful complaints filled the room. Why were there so many “dullards”? I wondered. Wasn’t it well known that February had no 30th? Then why were there people still willing to believe, even when they knew the date was wrong?
Maybe it was not the date that mattered; people believed it because they trusted us. When I realized this, I didn’t know whether to cheer up or cry. The fact that my acquaintances would believe this dumb joke and get angry at the truth was a sign of trust in me. To some extent, what I did was no different from the boy who made fun of nearby shepherds by often yelling, “There’s a wolf!” But the loss of trust is more dangerous than the attack of a wolf.
In an age when a mobile phone is more and more relied on as a personal mass-communication tool in China, it has become a reflection of yourself and your reliability. You are what you say; people have to believe you before opening your message. Imagine if people no longer believe what you say? Therefore, I say: Though it doesn’t take April 1st to send practical jokes for amusement, think before you act. There’s a trust thing that stings.
“So on second thought I’ve decided to tell you. I’m going to quit school on the 30th.”
No shock, please. It happened when February hadn’t yet left and you only had to check the calendar to discover that it was just another one of those junk jests you get on your mobile phone before pressing the delete button.
The fact was I and my roommates had sent this short message to all acquaintances in our phonebooks. We saw it as only a small harmless trick. To prove it, soon a reply came to my phone: “Wow! I’ll hopefully marry on that day!”
But in my heart I was hoping for some dullards. Just at that moment my close friend Juan’s reply came: “What’s up?”
I giggled. Knowing me better than any other friend, she would be the surest that I was not about to quit the college of my choice since early high school.
“Check the date,” I reminded her. But she stuck fast. I was defeated and confessed straight away with an apology that it was just a joke.
Instead of an expected laugh, a furious message struck back at me on the tiny screen: “How could you cheat me so?”
I was dumbfounded, never had I thought that what I did was anything like cheating. To make it worse, another friend called to tell me she almost suffered a heart attack when she saw the message. Shocked myself now, I sent explanations to everyone only to receive more and more “How could you cheat me so?” messages.
Disaster doesn’t travel alone. It seemed the other girls suffered the same fate. Soon, regretful complaints filled the room. Why were there so many “dullards”? I wondered. Wasn’t it well known that February had no 30th? Then why were there people still willing to believe, even when they knew the date was wrong?
Maybe it was not the date that mattered; people believed it because they trusted us. When I realized this, I didn’t know whether to cheer up or cry. The fact that my acquaintances would believe this dumb joke and get angry at the truth was a sign of trust in me. To some extent, what I did was no different from the boy who made fun of nearby shepherds by often yelling, “There’s a wolf!” But the loss of trust is more dangerous than the attack of a wolf.
In an age when a mobile phone is more and more relied on as a personal mass-communication tool in China, it has become a reflection of yourself and your reliability. You are what you say; people have to believe you before opening your message. Imagine if people no longer believe what you say? Therefore, I say: Though it doesn’t take April 1st to send practical jokes for amusement, think before you act. There’s a trust thing that stings.
2 Comments:
At 1:36 AM , Anonymous said...
I'm sorry to do this anonymously, maybe one day I won't, but I want to see how you react to this.
Look, about the "trust thing", your friends are dolts. Pure and simple. Idiots. They don't deserve your trust and you're as bad as they are if you assume that they're worth not playing silly jokes on. There's a very dangerous current in Chinese social settings that says "don't ever hurt anyone ever" when sometimes, you have to push useless people out of your life. How old are we? Shouldn't we know better than to cow when someone overreacts? I'm sorry, but grow up.
At 8:55 AM , lianne said...
Thanks for your comment. It seems you have a lot of objections here. You are entitled to hold different opinions but have no right to insult us. Maybe this article is stupid, but your calling my friends and I idiots hurt my feelings. Please be at least rational. I don't want WOW to be a battle field.
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