Generosity is usually associated with monetary giving, often religious giving and the promise of some return, Sreenivasan (2013) explains. If it’s not the impending favor of God, maybe it’s a tote bag from an NPR donation, but for the most part something is expected in return (Sreenivasan, 2013). Interestingly, in the middle of a recession during 2010, monetary donations increased about 4 percent, totaling about $300 billion in the U.S. (Sreenivasan, 2013). This change is in large part a result of technology and demonstrates yet another way that innovation is changing our society, sometimes for the better.
Technology has impacted giving in a number of ways. There is more transparency about where our donations are going, donating online and through text message is really easy, personal connections with the cause are promoted and it is easier to find the right charitable opportunities with more access to information (Sreenivasan, 2013). Being charitable or promoting social good is helped along by celebrities who encourage fans to support causes (Sreenivasan, 2013). Tremendous success has also been seen in crowdfunding for charitable projects, such as through platforms like Kickstarter (Sreenivasan, 2013).
An example of how easy technology has made charity was the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where people donated more than $30 million via their cell phones (Sreenivasan, 2013). Social media had a lot to do with it too, Pew (2010) explains. When an event such as the earthquake takes place, people congregate on social media to share information and get real time updates on what is happening, then the call for action comes and those already in the conversation are shown how they can get involved. During the tragedy, there were some 2.3 million Tweets on the earthquake while charitable groups were forming on Facebook (Pew, 2010).
This infographic shows in detail where donations have gained strength:
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| http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/nonprofit-online-marketing-benchmarks/ |
Technology also has made it easier to support worthy causes, by simply sharing information, opinions and resources on how to get involved, sort of like donating your virtual time. Plus, Sreenivasan (2013) notes, everyone is online watching their friends donate, being charitable and supporting causes and this has a chain reaction. Then there are all the ways technology is helping worthy causes in more tangible ways, such as with endangered species. Markham (2010) explains that endangered species are getting more help thanks to innovations like better mapping and visualization, smart collars for endangered animals, remote photography and video, remote monitoring, remote sampling, conservation drones and predictive analytics, among others.
This video by Ashoka explains how significantly technology is changing society:
In general, there needs to be more talk about how technology is benefiting society, making us more conscientious and involved in global affairs. Sure, there are plenty of negatives as well, cyberbullying, terrorism recruitment as well as over sexualization and violence in media. But there is a movement for that, for all of those issues, where we flood the Internet with good, positive messages to counteract the bad. It is often said that media, to some degree, is a mirror on society, only seriously amplified. Like everything, there is good and there is bad, I prefer to maintain hope that however slight, there is mostly good.
References
Markham, D. (2012). 12 innovative ways technology is saving endangered species. Tree Hugger. Retrieved from http://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/ways-technology-saving-endangered-species.html
Pew (2010). Social media aid the Haiti relief effort. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.org/2010/01/21/social-media-aid-haiti-relief-effort/
Sreenivasan, S. (2013). How might the Internet foster generosity? Big Questions Online. Retrieved from https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/content/how-might-internet-foster-generosity
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