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In the 1980s, Ed Koch, then New York’s mayor, often grabbed bemused commuters emerging from the subway, asking them a simple, surprising question: “How am I doin’?” Today, that query seems to be asked of everyone, all day long. Whether you’ve bought detergent or just had a colonoscopy, every store, website, health care provider, airline, credit card company, hotel and car dealership wants to know if you’re satisfied, how they could improve and whether you’ll recommend them. Fueled by the ease of responding online, our inboxes are now clogged with multiple requests per day for five-star ratings and glowing reviews. And today no transaction, however mundane, comes without a plea for feedback. Drivers who retrieve their cars from the valet at the Residence Inn in Berkeley, Calif., immediately receive a text message asking, “How was your valet parking experience?” The simple act of delivering a parked car now becomes an “experience” that needs to be rated. The quest for reviews “is the ultimate fetishization of capitalism,” said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “For centuries, our buy/sell relationship was akin to a one-night stand. Now every transaction is the beginning of a relationship,” one that introduces a social dimension with the supplier. Despite its intrusiveness and time suck, many people tend to engage with feedback — often happily. We love to be asked our opinions. We’ve gone from a world where people kept their diaries locked, to one where we have private conversations out in public on our iPhones as we walk down the street, and share our secrets on social media. We’ve now become a society in which everyone can be an influencer, without even needing to build a following. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.andar bahar real cash |