Last week, I hosted a Japanese professor who visited my school. She shared that when her elderly mother in her 80s visited Singapore, they were surprised by how Singaporeans readily gave up their seat on public transport to her ageing mum. She was amazed by our graciousness because this is unlikely to happen in Japan.
I was sorry to burst her bubble, but clarified that this stage of graciousness was the result of many years of concerted public campaigning. Our metro system has mascots to deliver the message of giving up seats to elderly people, pregnant ladies and disabled people. The end seat of every carriage is specially designated for these groups of individuals who need the seat more. Through such targeted initiatives, Singaporeans’ behaviour changed for the better gradually.
Which leads to the act of zapping on SN. I think it is perceived differently by different people. Some people are hesitant to zap responses because they are scared that they will be taken advantage of, that other Stackers flock to comment on their posts because of this inherent expectation of being zapped. Others will zap back as a token of appreciation.
I belong to the second camp, I guess. I think it’s only polite to zap back. In fact, I flirted with the idea of zapping a comment less than I would zap a post. But I soon abolished the idea because I found it troublesome to adjust my thinking. Anyway, who am I to say that comments are inherently worth less than posts? So I zap back as best as I can.
I don’t have any expectations in regard to the amount. Obviously, a 300 sat zap will make me happy, but this isn’t to say that a 10 sat zap won’t. I’m mindful that some Stackers mayn’t post and comment much, so 10 sats is their way of demonstrating V4V. I accept all zaps with grace.
I’m not so egoistic to stipulate that everyone whom I zap must zap me back. If you don’t find value in my comment, let’s all move on haha. But what I find peculiar is how some people’s stacking amounts heavily outweigh their spending amounts. Surely this means that they don’t zap anyone at all (or at most, a few lucky individuals).
Ordinarily I would have kept quiet and just concentrated on my stacking behaviour. But thanks to the Japanese professor’s observation, I’m reminded of how Rome wasn’t built in a day, of how Singaporeans put in the necessary proof of work to become more gracious. Wasn’t it Gandhi who said, “be the change you want to see in this world”?
post\comment & ZAP good content