Did Cyber, who prayed for fake rain, get real benefits?

This book reveals the phenomenon of Internet users praying for "cyber rain" on the platform and explores the psychology and influence behind it. It is recommended to readers who are interested in Internet culture and user behavior.

Any platform that has not been criticized by netizens is not worthy of being a national app.

Nowadays, Meituan, Ele.me, Pinduoduo, China Mobile... the shopping platforms you often use are always attacked by netizens in C language; "Unfair pricing faction", "Not as good as competitors faction", "Threatening to die faction", "Direct attack faction", members of each faction seem to be very angry.

In fact, this kind of sweet talk about the platform is just a cyber rain-making. In addition to the suggestion that sincerity will bring good luck, it is also a form of crazy literature; and the rumor that "criticizing the platform will get discounts" has also been proven to be just a rumor. However, in this "criticizing post" farce, both users and platforms face a lose-lose situation: users waste time and energy, and may even be blocked; the platform gets negative feedback for no reason and may miss out on real feedback from users who love to criticize the platform. If you really want to get extra discounts, you can try to praise the platform next time. It may work wonders.

1. No matter who you are, you will be scolded in line

Whether it is Douban, Weibo, or Xiaohongshu, nowadays on various social platforms, there are always users speaking well of the platforms. Meituan, Ele.me, Pinduoduo, China Mobile... are all controlled by various C languages ​​and can be roughly divided into four factions according to their content.

The first group is the "unfair price group"

Members of this group, having heard the "bottom line" of the platform through gossip, hope that they too will have "most-favored-nation treatment", and therefore curse the platform for being unfair online in order to gain benefits for themselves. For example, regarding the price of Meituan takeaway membership, some netizens launched a fierce battle, posting notes and playing them on a loop: "I am fed up with Meituan, why do others only charge 2.99, but I have to pay 15. In the comment section of the notes, more than 800 netizens followed suit, saying: "Meituan charges others 2.99, but charges me 15. " "Meituan, tell me, why is my coupon 31.9 yuan, while others charge 2.9 yuan.

The second group is the "not as good as competitors" group

Scolding only one platform can only benefit one, so members of this group implement the "kill two birds with one stone" rule, playing the "step on one and praise one" routine, using "other people's children" to provoke their own "dearth". For example, regarding the CP of Meituan and Ele.me, one netizen scolded: "Ele.me is speechless, there is no red envelope, and it is not as useful as Meituan."

"Meituan membership is really bad, not as good as Ele.me. Regarding the combination of Pinduoduo and Taobao, some netizens also said: "Pinduoduo membership is too bad, not as good as Taobao." "Taobao saving card is really too bad, not as good as Pinduoduo.

The third group is the "threat of death" group

In Tianjin during the Republic of China, two groups of young men would often use cruelty on themselves before a fight, hoping to scare the other side. Today, this routine has a cyber version. After expressing their demands, countless netizens threatened to punish themselves in an attempt to force the platform to comply. Among them, regarding the coupons for Luckin Coffee, one netizen said: "Luckin, give me a 38% discount coupon, otherwise I won't drink it, and my classmates won't drink it either.

As for Pinduoduo’s benefits, some netizens said: "I hate Pinduoduo, I hate Pinduoduo so much. Pinduoduo didn’t even give me a no-threshold coupon. If I don’t get a 200 yuan coupon today, I will uninstall Pinduoduo immediately. But in the comment section of this post, one netizen seemed to have seen through everything and said: "In that case, let me supervise you to uninstall.

The fourth group is the "direct confrontation group"

When cursing and expressing one's demands at the same time, people can always see the purpose. Therefore, members of this group often do not give reasons or raise demands when cursing the platform. As for why the platform is being scolded, it depends on the other party's understanding. For example, one netizen repeated it N times: "Meituan has really become more expensive, it is really not cost-effective, I am so angry." Another netizen posted the same sentence: "China Mobile is rubbish, too unfriendly to me, I will stop using the Mobile card tomorrow.

2. A Cyber ​​Prayer for Rain

Many netizens are really gnashing their teeth at the platform and wanting to eat its flesh alive just to get more discounts and more benefits. Brother Pan discovered that this C++ language full of exclamation marks is not the true feelings of netizens, but a kind of performance art of theirs. Nowadays, the perception that "scolding the platform will get a low price" has become the cyber rain-making in the Internet age.

From Meituan to Ele.me, from Pinduoduo to China Mobile, almost every shopping platform has its own "swearing post". The friends who are responsible for building the post put aside their personal qualities and enjoy their crazy lives. They copy and paste the texts criticizing the platform in the comment area. They are very motivated and enjoy doing this. Although they consume a lot of time and energy, the result seems to be in vain. Because the core of this behavior is not to gamble with big data algorithms, but just the self-consolation of "sincerity will work". As the historian Kong Feili wrote in "Calling Souls": A beggar under torture, a story made up casually, will let the rumor of "cutting people's braids and taking people's souls" spread, which became a collective panic of the people at that time. At the same time, from the perspective of social emotions, this kind of "swearing post" against the platform seems to be a kind of crazy literature.

What it represents is not the resentment of netizens towards a certain platform, but a way of expressing emotions, a youth subculture phenomenon. For example, some netizens interpreted crazy literature against Coodi Coffee: "College students, there is really no need to drink Coodi for the sake of face. Whether others recognize you or not has nothing to do with whether you drink Coodi or not. In the comment section of the post, some netizens started a battle in the air: "I always put on other brands of cup covers when buying Luckin Coffee, because I am afraid that the frequency of my purchases will make people around me feel inferior, and then create a sense of distance. So, did you really receive a coupon by scolding Meituan? This kind of question is like asking: "Has crazy literature made life better? The answer is: of course not. In statistics, there is a concept called "survivor bias", which refers to the fact that excessive focus on "surviving" cases will ignore most other cases, and thus draw wrong conclusions.

For example, after accidentally receiving a red envelope from Meituan, one netizen made a causal connection between "scolding the platform" and "getting a red envelope" and excitedly posted online, saying: "Scolding Meituan really works, my friends! When other friends saw it, they copied and pasted the same text in a swarm. They thought they had found the password to the problem, but found that there was still nothing. They could only sigh: "The clown is actually me." In this regard, Meituan customer service once told users: "Meituan will not discriminate against the issuance of coupons based on any user information. It is recommended that you do not believe in online rumors." At the same time, Luckin Coffee also responded: "Scolding is useless, coupons are issued randomly.

3. Everyone is a bad guy, facing a lose-lose situation

Nowadays, on various social platforms, when netizens face shopping platforms, they immediately turn into "all villains" and criticize the platforms; but in this process, it is actually a lose-lose situation for both users and platforms. This is because, for users: first of all, the cyber-prayer of "criticizing the platform to get discounts" is just a waste of their own time and energy, and is completely useless for taking advantage of the platforms themselves.

Secondly, when users are "scolding the platform", they are prone to excessive rhetoric, deliberately provoking conflicts, etc., which may result in the "N-day ban gift package" being issued, and in serious cases, the social platform may even block the account. On the other hand, for the platform: First, it is an unprovoked disaster to get negative news out of nowhere; if a user spreads rumors in the "scolding post", the damage caused is immeasurable. Secondly, too many users "scolding you without negotiation" may easily cause the platform to miss those real feedbacks when observing public opinion, which is not conducive to the subsequent improvement and optimization of the platform. It can be seen that users' bad words against the platform are really a waste of resources.

After all, the platform is not Wang Lang in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and will not be scolded to death by Zhuge Liang; those users who participate in the "swearing posts" are obviously not Prime Minister Zhuge, and they do not have any far-sighted wisdom . Taking a step back, even if the scolding can really affect the platform, users should not blindly follow suit, but should "do the opposite" and use real evaluations to make the platform better.

Perhaps, the relationship between users and platforms is like a teacher educating students: if you just beat, scold and belittle them, it will only make the students more rebellious. More encouragement and feedback are the way for users and platforms to achieve a win-win situation.

Author: Brother Pang; Source public account: IQ Tax Research Center (ID: 1089356)