Tuesday 26 January 2010

Post Generation Y?

I am watching with interest and amusement how some of our youngsters are trying to cope with the new or social media paradigm.

It is heartening to see most are trying to embrace the empowerment presented by fast improving technology and vast opportunities for social intercourse and networking. By and large, most are content to use these new tools just to fraternize but the more adventurous attempt to "ride the tiger" so to speak and get involved in e-enabled commerce, either as sellers or buyers of services or goods off the Internet.

Faced with the frightening prospect of being unable to keep pace with an expected increasingly competitive environment, many youngsters impatiently plunge into the realm of e-business for fear of being left behind by their peers. As a result many throw themselves into the deep end and try to ride this new wave on a wing and a prayer; most of the time, armed only with the diligence to scour the Net for bargain merchandise for reselling to equally diligent bargain hunters.

Youth-run online business websites and blogs are sprouting up like mushrooms after a storm. The majority are e-trading sites retailing everything from boutique clothes, cosmetics, accessories, etc. to confectionery, appliances, gadgets and what have you.

The great information superhighway was supposed to create the perfect free and open marketplace where laissez-faire is the order of the day. Yet the reality is that we are just not there yet. While information is virtually free-flowing, it forms just one part of the business and transactional cycle. A major component of e-trading is the management of logistics coupled with the "rules of engagement".

Usually, the buyer and seller need to trust each other and this runs counter to basic human nature; the average person is pragmatic in believing the end justifies the means in being perceived as individually successful. This rugged individualism in human attitudes runs counter to universalism and resolution between the two is made all the more difficult because the need for personal status and upmanship is equated with happiness!

However, the rulebook on engagement is a work-in-progress awaiting further development in both enabling technology as well as more effective legislation. Alas, the learning is steep on a curve that is itself only now being defined.

Therefore, things are still very much grey in the world of e-trading and this is reflected in the acceptance that there is an inherent level of risk when one chooses to trade or purchase online. Without the wisdom of experience and knowledge, most immature minds cannot cope with the demands for real business responsibilities and ethical behaviour whether they be the seller or the buyer. Conflict occurs when minds do not meet and anarchy erupts.


To compound matters, aggression and avoidance behavior has been a means of survival for humans since the Stone Age and in our evolutionary process, we have a brain which does not as yet have complete control over our physiological responses. Under high emotional stress, we tend to lose rationality. As Carl Gustav Jung aptly puts it; "The rational and irrational exist side by side and healthy people recognize the workings of both forces within themselves. We should look to our mental neuroses and physical ailments as unconscious value patterns".

I am bemused while witnessing a classic dispute happening to JJ relating to an online transaction gone awry and obviously blown out of proportion by over-reaction. Self-explanatory exchanges can be found here and here. For JJ it is a learning curve.

While fault is debatable and hardly a case for the Police Commercial Crime Division, some rudeness and hassle have spilled over to my blog. Invasion of privacy aside, harassment and intimidation are definitely criminal and I will decide soon whether to press charges.

Obviously, the phone number and exact address of the perpetrator and screenshots are with me.

5 comments:

KS Cheah said...

To the anonymous person who left a comment here. I like the way you have written.

However, I do not deal with anonymous people. Please identify yourself first.

Anonymous said...

I suggest you guys be on the look out because it seems those group of jamtank hoodlums are planning to gang up and stalk your son and probably hurt him.

This is no joking matter. These good for nothing musician wannabes get off from hurting others both mentally and physically to make up for their lack of real talents and inability to get noticed musically.

KS Cheah said...

Dear Anonymous,

I do not usually respond to messages from "anonymous" but thanks for the "heads up" and your concern.

Those people from jamtank can try to do what they want it will not affect decent people like JJ who is merely defending himself mostly. They will not be able to touch him mentally because if they could, they would have already.

They must remember that they cannot hide in cyberspace if anybody wants to really find them and should not try things illegal. They seriously do not know who they are dealing with here.

Jason said...

I'm from Jamtank.

As far as they say they will gang up on JJ, they won't do it. I know them too well to assure you that.

We have gone through too many experiences like that (as in getting a faulty gear, getting conned).

On JJ's blog, he "accidentally" admitted that Lun (the buyer) was rushing to buy the pedal so he did not inform him that it was faulty. At that moment, he might have not been thinking straight cause of all the threats he's been getting. To make things worse, he deleted that post, raising suspicions.

Furthermore, on Jamtank itself JJ was passing insults to Lun. But that wasn't the first time JJ did that. There's this, http://jamtank.net/community/index.php?topic=8491.0 and this, http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=1289708&hl=staticspike

I think that JJ should meet Lun and settle it once and for all.

KS Cheah said...

Jason, glad to know you are from Jamtank. Give me your email address and we can take this chat private.

In any case, I would like to tell you unequivocally that I do know what transpired from the day JJ bought that ancient pedal from the guy keithtan. In fact, we mocked him about buying an antique although it was functioning but not very sensitive. Keithtan did not tell JJ about this condition of the pedal and JJ only found out about it after receipt. Since it did work JJ did not fuss about it and accepted it as a case of "you win some, and you lose some". For Lun to say the pedal is not functioning is a lie. I know JJ did tell him it is old and discontinued model. JJ will not intentionally cheat anyone. Lun knew from the beginning what he was buying.

Anyway, this is no longer about the pedal. It has gone very personal with JJ and the way Lun hounded him to send the pedal (a mere 3 days) was totally unwarranted. That was the first indication of the kind of person this Lun is. His actions and words after receiving the pedal closed the door to any possibility of amicable solution. One just does not say the things that was said to another over such a small matter. It went beyond reasonable limits. The moment they insulted JJ's departed mother it was the last straw. With every reference to JJ's mother they are wishing their own mothers to die because that is the only way they will know what it is like. What goes around comes around.

Jason, this is all I will say about the matter for now and if you want to communicate with me, email me.

Cheah