Doing Good

I got into a debate with my mom and my sister the other day about how much influence a person has over their personal network, how extended communities interact with each other and what happens to these communities when your actions show how you choose to live. My mom and my sister were not convinced that people on the individual level had that much effect, but I disagree.

We are by nature competitive beings who want the attention and affection of the people around us for acceptance of our actions so we feel that our lives have been lived well. When you start giving your time, energy and money to causes and people working to make the world better by your standards, not only does it flood your system with altruistic endorphins and promote public good; it pushes the people around you to recognize the benefits, figure out what your actions mean to them and adjust by doing or by appreciating to stay within your social circle.

With Facebook and Twitter and other social media networks we have taken advantage of our own personal ‘word of mouth’. The ability for us to know everything that our extended friends, family and interesting people we don’t know but like are posting to the web is free and addictive. It’s not a new thing that people have become individualized brands in and of themselves but the methods by which this happens is faster and more accessible to the general literate, internet-connected populous (which is actually only about 7% of the world).

Websites like Kiva (connecting people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty) and Kickstarter (funding creative ideas and ambitious endeavors) are excellent examples of the literate, internet-connected world’s ability to push up sleeves and put the web and social networks to good working use.

These are some Kickstarter projects and Kiva loans I’ve pledged to fund (yep, I like funding poor women makers, ‘green’ things and golden books):

WindowFarms

Tigerbuttah: A Hand-Painted All Ages Story Inspired by Golden Books