By ADAM HENDEL
Aside from the gossip and irrelevant entertainment, social media have allowed greater numbers of people participate and come together for good reasons. Social media have become a huge influence for partaking in charitable causes.
Parents complain that kids waste too much time on Facebook, but it has become necessary to follow social media for event planning. Word of mouth and the news are not as effective to raise public awareness on their own.
Michael Scott is a 5-year-old boy with Leukemia who was able to live out his dream thanks to the use of various social media sources that advertised his big event. According to The Huffington Post, Michael’s dream to be a super hero came true on Nov. 15 as San Francisco transformed into Gotham for a day. Make-a-Wish estimated that more than 7,000 people participated in the event.
The attendance was great thanks awareness on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sources. With almost 486,000 followers on Facebook, and 140,500 on Twitter, the possibility for a huge crowd was a probability. Many important people caught wind of Batkid’s charity. Even Barack Obama posted his own social input on vine by saying “Way to go Michael, way to save Gotham!”.
Social media are not only making community participation in charitable causes more prevalent, but also stories of random acts of kindness have the ability to rub off on their viewers now more than ever. For a lot of people the story is not directly read from the news station, but rather heard of when re-posted on Facebook or Twitter.
It is popular to post videos of random acts of kindness in social media threads. The videos are so popular that many have drawn enough attention to be news worthy. The Huffington Post wrote an article titled, “YouTube Pranksters Behind VitalyzedTv give Homeless Man New Teeth in Touching Video” in which a perfect example of one of the heart warming videos is featured.
People following the news, social media, or the YouTube channel have commented on the inspiration the feel from the video post. I believe that people posting videos of themselves being generous, even if only for publicity, are good influences by provoking the thought that we at home should be doing generous deeds too.
Social media can abused for its slander and extensive over-use by youth, but it can be used for good. I think it has opened doors that will ideally make people want to be more involved in positive community causes or just helping out someone in need.