It’s raining ratings in the virtual world
The departing monsoon may have caught us off guard but there’s a deluge of another kind in the virtual world these days. It’s raining ratings out there.
Whether it’s cab services, grocery orders, home services, nursing agencies and even websites that try to inculcate spirituality and preach moving inwards, far from the madding crowd, everyone wants to be rated.
However overrated this may sound, the more articles you read, the more points you get. The more you travel using cab services, the more you get to rate. Each time you ride, you get to rate the ride. And they rate you in turn.
You get to rate delivery boys, the services of the agency and so on. But what happens when you don’t rate them? Well, some sites just let it be, while others will not let you use their services till you rate them. What rating do you give a delivery boy who placed everything, oh so gently, on your table but spent the next few minutes talking nineteen to a dozen, asking questions about your TV, wi-fi connection, salary paid to your maid and if you needed the housekeeping services run by his brother? Or the courier fellow who offers unsolicited advice on tending to plants?
What if you rate a driver awful, while he rates you awesome! Don’t stress, you can go back and change his rating. They won’t ask you the reason but I am sure someone would wonder about our capability to remember a driver, think about the ride and change the rating after a few hours. I’m sure most commuters wouldn’t remember those drivers unless they were really good or horribly unpleasant.
How would you rate a driver who came on time and reached the destination without taking you on a roller-coaster free ride, but smelled of tobacco and cigarette smoke? He did do his work properly and transported you in one piece, didn’t he?
My worst nightmares are those drivers who talk incessantly, not allowing you to relax or reply to emails/messages or simply sit. I shudder at the memory of taxi rides when I was forced to say, “Hmm, of course, horrible traffic, no one cares”, to be polite and keep the conversation going, lest he felt bad.
Ratings help people decide which movies to watch, which channels to subscribe to and which show to attend. The data that cannot be measured quantitatively, can be rated. This helps give an idea about the relative values of a characteristic.
Teachers rating students through marks is based on the answers submitted, while students rating teachers is a subjective call. Most students use this opportunity to express their resentment against teachers who are strict and probably have been harsh.
Self-assessment appraisal forms are often a source of stress, as we really do not know how to rate ourselves. Peer rating, in most cases, are a means to get back at mean colleagues and hardly anyone uses it objectively. Rating is so in-built in our psyche today that most of you would already have rated this article in your minds!
WHAT IF YOU RATE A DRIVER AWFUL, WHILE HE RATES YOU AWESOME! DON’T STRESS, YOU CAN REVIEW THE RATING