Altruism
The amount of negativity on social media can be overwhelming. But what about the positive aspects of it? Digital altruism allows people to come together and work towards a cause they are passionate about. From signing a petition or donating to a GoFundMe to physically helping out an organization, the possibilities are endless. Social media allows people to more easily help out a cause and to alert others about community service events near them. Digital altruism is also extremely useful for people who want to help out a cause but are unable to physically do so. It's so easy now to sign a petition or donate money without even leaving your couch.
For example, biddingforgood.com allows users and organizations to auction off items. The money earned from those auctions goes towards the specific organization, another charity, etc. It takes fundraising to a whole new level.
Another form of online altruism I have personally seen occurs on Twitter. People or organizations will tweet something along the lines of, "For every tweet this gets I will donate $0.25 to [insert charity here]." The only downside of this is that you don't know for certain if the people tweeting these are actually donating their money. They could just be using the attention for their own personal advantages.
However, people also use Twitter to make others aware of causes that otherwise not many people would know about. I have seen a lot of tweets concerning people's close friends or relatives who are sick but cannot afford their medical bills.
Overall, altruism through social media is a great tool to have. It shows how positive and useful social media can be despite all of the cyberbullying, trolls, fake news, and so on. Hopefully, digital altruism will continue for a long time and only get better.
For example, biddingforgood.com allows users and organizations to auction off items. The money earned from those auctions goes towards the specific organization, another charity, etc. It takes fundraising to a whole new level.
Another form of online altruism I have personally seen occurs on Twitter. People or organizations will tweet something along the lines of, "For every tweet this gets I will donate $0.25 to [insert charity here]." The only downside of this is that you don't know for certain if the people tweeting these are actually donating their money. They could just be using the attention for their own personal advantages.
However, people also use Twitter to make others aware of causes that otherwise not many people would know about. I have seen a lot of tweets concerning people's close friends or relatives who are sick but cannot afford their medical bills.
Overall, altruism through social media is a great tool to have. It shows how positive and useful social media can be despite all of the cyberbullying, trolls, fake news, and so on. Hopefully, digital altruism will continue for a long time and only get better.
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