In early January, Jarrid Tansey delivered a pizza to a local car dealership. The dealership gave Jarrid two twenty-dollar bills and two five-dollar bills. Jarrid assumed that the extra five was part of his tip so he returned to his restaurant. When he arrived, the dealership called the restaurant saying Jarrid stole seven dollars. Jarrid returned to the dealership to return the money. At the dealership the management berated him. The interaction was captured on a security camera and the video wound up on YouTube.
The video received so much reaction that one of the viewers of the story started a GoFundMe campaign to “get Jarrid his tip.” Support from the online community poured in. Currently over $30,000 have been donated to Jarrid Tansey. In an interview Jarrid did with a local news station, Jarrid seems thankful for the support, but he insists that he harbors no ill will towards F&R.
Crowd funding has exploded in the past few years. It’s been used to fund movies, provide surgeries for uninsured individual, and in Jarrid Tansey’s case, it allows people an easy way to support a cause with more than just words. The online community used their wallets to speak - they monetized their support for Tansey. This is an interesting development that proves that social media can create real change.
In this case, Jarrid Tansey has a story with which people connected. A good story is what is needed for a person to reach into their digital pocket and send money to a stranger. Crowd funding can fiscally support individuals needing medical treatments or families needing support after a tragedy. What bothers me is that people with genuine needs may not get funding if they don’t have a compelling story like Jarrid’s.
The support for Jarrid wasn’t the only result of this social media firestorm. The dealership in question has been ripped to shreds on Yelp and Google Reviews. Yelp seems to have implemented measures to mitigate the dealership’s backlash from the incident. There are only five reviews total. While all of them are negative, Yelp must be monitoring content and removing content that is not explicitly related to the purchasing of cars. Google, however, has no interest in moderating the content posted to Google Reviews. There are over 2,700 one-star reviews. This is the most succinct review relevant to the Tansy incident:
Treat people like garbage and you get garbage reviews. Enjoy the power of viral video, turds. Learn to treat people a little better and the world will serve up something better than a shit sandwich.
Many of the reviews seem to more related to the buying and selling of cars, the dealership’s main business. The posters probably recognized that not referencing pizza in the review might damage the dealership’s reputation more effectively. In a few months when the buzz surrounding these happenings has worn off, people interested in purchasing a car from the F&R auto sales will definitely think twice before submitting a loan application.
This Tansy incident is a great example of how effective videos can be at sharing information. If the event was shared in any other format, it would have been much harder for people to empathize with Jarrid Tansey. Six years ago when Internet speeds were slower, watching a video online required a moderate amount of load time. In those days, I would often find myself annoyed news articles that only conveyed information through a video clip. Now that the majority of people have access to speeds capable of streaming HD movies with no buffer, Jarrid’s story was able to go viral.
Social media allows people’s actions to become public affairs. We are growing ever more conscious of our actions and how they will be recorded. There is this constant threat that any wrong-doing could end up haunting a person or a business forever. This threat is motivating us think about the effects of our actions. Society members being conscious of their actions is a good thing, but if this awareness is created out of fear is it really making our world a better place? A real estate company in Michigan was inspired by the Tansey event enough to give their pizza delivery man a $2000+ tip. Was this donation to someone in the same position as Jarrid just a kind act or were the realtors motivated by the good PR they could stand to receive that could potentially bring in clients and commissions?
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