Arbenting

Recently Rob wrote a post over at MyInkBlog that discussed social media, and through the comments we began wondering what most people use social media for. While Angie and I were having this discussion, a truly horrible thing happened. A devastating earthquake hit Haiti, destroying the lives of so many. And in the wake of this tragic disaster, we saw some truly remarkable things happening via social media to aid those affected by the earthquake…and then we bore witness to some truly shallow things as well.

However, we would like to take a second to point out that the amazing and inspired work featured throughout this post are just some examples of the spectacular work being created by the design community to help raise awareness of this massive humanitarian effort to help the Haitian people recover from this tragic event. You are all such inspiring artists, and we salute you.

Graphic by Kyle Ellis

I think that we can all agree that humanitarian efforts instigated by this tragic event are beyond necessary, they are inspiring. However, when those in a position to make a difference and lend a hand in the face of such tragedies, instead use them as a PR opportunity to further their own name and social media rank and position, it is sad and bordering on despicable. Luckily this trend is not the majority in the market right now, and hopefully, with enough indignation, it never will be. Hopefully, inspirational outpouring of humanitarian aid will remain the overall success story in these tragic times, like in the quote below from a blog you may know.

In a recent post from makeuseof.com – A recent news item in the Washington Post says that U.S cell phone users raised $22 million via a text campaign. Twitter updates are spreading the news. That’s social media lending a hand to humanity.

It is stories like that which prove the power of people reaching out across the social media networks and coming together with a common purpose to unite for. It demonstrates the strength of social media for helping to spur social change, just as the blogosphere has done for years with campaigns like Blog Action Day, or One Day For Human Rights. Which unfortunately means, that some of the populous out there will seek to capitalize on these events through these channels simply to make a name for themselves, or in a sad attempt to make their name bigger than it already is. This kind of personal profiteering is a sickening display that would hopefully have a negative overall impact on the user’s social media standing, but the truth is, it more than likely won’t.

Graphic by Christopher Griego

The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Tactless

…and so as to not promote them anymore than they have grossly overdone themselves. So what it all came down to was this. A retired football player coming out via Twitter the other day saying that he would pledge to give so much per new follower that he received by a certain time to Haitian relief efforts. And probably to most, this seems like an honest, if not honorable, act by this celebrity. But you see, we feel it crosses the line that sits between being a humanitarian and being a hu-ge self serving jackass. Why does it cross this line, that may only exist in our heads? Well, below are our thoughts.

Graphic by KUT COMMUNICATIONS

The Failed Approach

Now of course, as previously stated, we believe that any financial aid being sent to the Haitian people is a good thing, however, when it is used like we mentioned above to further someone’s personal status, it becomes tacky and shameful. This is someone who has the means to follow-up on a promise like this, but why not make it more about the event, and less about you. Why not make a donation based on the total number of followers that you have? That would show that it is more about the money being given and less about how much you can raise your numbers. By making it about the number of new followers garnered, you greedily turn it into a popularity contest featuring yours truly.

Graphic by Emrah Kara

Why make it about you at all? Why not just make the donation and then go out via the social media network of your choice and share that you just donated X amount of dollars to aid Haitian relief efforts and then inquire as to what your followers have done to help out. Get people thinking about what they can do to assist by spreading the word about things being done in their local venues. By helping with efforts in their communities, and actively working the issue. Not just granting the lazy among us with a pacifying ‘just click here’ method that is more about helping promote you and not the cause.

Graphic by Kode Logic

And while there are those among you who may be thinking that this might at least get those who cannot be stirred into action and off their asses, to at least be making a contribution that they otherwise wouldn’t, I say to you, perhaps. But wouldn’t they be just as likely to ‘just click here’ if the account they were going to follow was say a new account that was started just for Haitian relief efforts. That would indicate that whoever created it, did so just for this purpose, and again, makes it all about the humanitarianism, and not all about the human behind it. So this approach seems to be flawed to us, because it is focused on the wrong place.

Graphic by Chip Allison

Here endeth the rant…

And that’s how we feel about that! Long story short, it just saddens us to see celebrities who could have made an effort without the proverbial shouting of, ‘look at me! look at me!’, unwilling to do so on their own. These people were handed the positions of role models, and they wield it irresponsibly, not really giving us much to look up to after all.

A Final Word

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