The first casualty of social-media wars?
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As someone who has been doing a lot of writing in coffee shops lately, I was disturbed to hear reports of people being charged Bt2,000 for "working" at a Bangkok cafe. You can't blame me for being distracted by the whole episode, or for overlooking a cele
Troublesome as it was, the story was also fascinating. If you somehow missed it among the headlines featuring actor “Tono” and actress “Taengmo” or the latest plight of displaced persons in Thailand, here’s how it went: A group of four adults entered “Bon Coffee” on Ratchadapisek Road, ordered five cups and a bottle of water and, well, time passed. When they checked, the bill was Bt2,260, and they were told Bt2,000 of that was for their “business” session.
As you might expect, all hell broke loose. Finally, only the coffees and drinking water were paid for and one of the four predictably turned to the modern-day victim’s last resort – Facebook and Pantip.
I said “time passed” because there are major discrepancies in the accounts offered. As both warring parties courted sympathy via the social media, three sets of information emerged over how long the four adults supped. The “plaintiffs” claimed they were at the shop for just over an hour. The café’s publicists said four hours. The photographed bill, however, stated that the orders were placed at 3.41pm and the receipt was printed at 6.21pm, adding up to two hours and 40 minutes.
There are other pieces of information to ponder. The first is that the shop has a “warning notice” on tables saying that customers would be charged Bt1,000 an hour for engaging in business-like activities. Second, the management applies this sanction because the cafe is located in a business area and – according to some Netizens who claim to be customers and took its side – is always crowded. Third, Post Today quoted a Bon Cafe manager as saying that the “business” fee was merely a tactic to scare off anyone who wanted to exploit the place as a workstation, and nobody was actually charged the penalty.
Knowing the social media as I do, I’m reluctant to rush to judgement. I’m concerned, though, because the charge seems to be real, at least on paper. And although a return of Bt260 on a table occupied for two hours and 40 minutes doesn’t make the group ideal coffee-shop customers, I have seen worse. Actually, my personal record is close to that, although it was set at a friendly coffee shop that was anything but crowded.
What should I do now? Type less and watch YouTube instead? Should groups confine their talk to the weather, politics and celebrities, take an occasional selfie, but avoid closing insurance deals or discussing anything related to sales?
What constitutes “business-like activities” anyway, and who are the judges? I mean, five people can enter a coffee shop, each armed with a tablet, finish a focus-group interview and then claim they just had a friendly chat about what they like and don’t like about digital TV programmes.
Yet, if everyone behaves a little more sensibly, the problem will disappear as quickly as it arrived. Less likely to melt away are the conditions that allowed the customers to understate, and Bon Café to overstate, the time spent at the table. This little incident underscores the biggest myth surrounding the social media. On the one hand, the social media are a good lie detector. On the other, in projecting themselves online, users are tempted to hold back or even distort information.
Have you ever wondered why there are only “victims” on Facebook? People complain about office politics, traffic violations and of being taken advantage of in a host of other ways. Nobody has ever posted “I cut the queue at the restaurant today and it feels really nice”.
How come Netizens are only ever righteous people?
Are we to believe that no social-media user ever parks in a “no-parking” spot, or kicks their pet, or yells at their parents? I’m a firm believer in the merits of social media, including their ability to “empower” ordinary people. But if all the online chatter reflects the moral state of this world, why isn’t it a nicer place to live in?
I know the social media have their own unique etiquette, which is impossible in real life. It was amusing when a user posted that her habit of “sharing” what she had for lunch might prompt police and psychiatrists to “follow” her. However, the old lines between politeness and rudeness, reality and righteousness are being blurred daily in the social media, and the result is often anything but funny.
