WEBVTT - Can social networking create social change? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.880 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi there, everybody, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.119 and thanks for listening to tech Stuff. My name is 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.080 Chris Pellette and I am the tech editor here at 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:25.120 how stuff works dot com, sitting across from me as 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:28.640 usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. The times they are 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:34.239 a change in Okay, anything in particular that made you 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.080 say that, just kind of a social change thing. I 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.239 see what you're getting at. Chris and I decided that 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.720 we wanted to talk about something that the two of 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.800 us are are very interested in. Um, I'm I've written 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.479 about this quite a bit in the blogs, blogs dot 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.000 hou stuff works dot com, and um, it's something that 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.360 I continue to really be interested in. And it's the 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:59.440 whole concept of social networking and social change, all right, 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:04.200 because increasingly we're seeing social networking becoming an important part 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:10.080 of uh social activities throughout the population, especially in the 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.360 Western world, um, the over in Asia. It's a little 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:16.280 harder for us to tell just because you know, we 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.040 we don't have that experience, but we see a lot 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:24.600 of people using sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or kit 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.920 even that kind of stuff too, sort of a keep 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:32.440 touch with friends, past information along make recommendations to one another, 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:36.479 um even share links like We're starting to see social 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.679 networking become just as important in a way as search engines. 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:44.120 People are discovering content by seeing what their friends suggest. 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:47.160 And I know this might actually surprise some people because 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.320 a lot of people, for example, with Twitter, when it 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.840 first came out, the question on the homepage was you know, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.880 what are you doing? And people say, well, I don't 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.080 really want to visit a site in which I have 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.760 to read about everyone going to the bathroom and making 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.040 a sandwich, finding the remote for their shoes. I am 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:14.880 tying my shoe, taping the terrier to the wall. It 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.280 gets kind of slow on the weekends. Okay, okay, But 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:21.639 but the thing is I mean and that and when 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.680 I wrote that post about Facebook light on the blogs, blogs, 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.640 dot house, stuffworks, dot com. Um, you know, we got 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:30.160 a lot of feedback for people who didn't like it 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:32.960 because they couldn't get to their applications. They wanted to 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.880 play Alexulis, they wanted to, you know, get into Farmville 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.160 and they couldn't. And you can't do that on Facebook. 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.320 But because Facebook Light is a stripped down version of 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.520 the site where you're just getting essentially status updates. So 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.240 you know, you might be thinking, well, these sites are 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:50.880 really just for play, and a lot of people do 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.919 use them for that, but um, they also enable a 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.680 kind of communication in a broader form that that that 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:01.280 also makes it possible to do things like, uh, you know, 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.640 organize uh, I mean even for fun, organize a flash mob, 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:07.720 you know, and you might just want to get a 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:11.240 group together to to do a goofy little fake pillow 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.520 fight in the middle of of downtown New York or something, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.960 or or organize a tweet up and say, you know, hey, 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.360 I'm at Joe's Bar down on Fourteenth Street and have 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:22.880 random people who happened to be in the area drop 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.320 in and go, hey, you know, yeah, nice to meet you. 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:27.800 I'm Twitter. You know this is me. But you can 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:32.320 also utilize these same social networking tools to try and 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.600 affect a change where you're trying to to either get 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.480 a message across so that you're trying to to raise 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:44.000 awareness or you're actually trying to change something specifically. And uh, 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.480 we wanted to kind of talk about how people have 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.120 used social networking to attempt this and whether or not 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:54.720 it's been successful. And I would argue that in large part, uh, 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.800 actually making a change has not been that successful through 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.960 social networking. But that's mainly because I don't know that 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.760 anyone has necessarily figured out the best way of doing it, 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.200 yet everybody does it a little bit differently. Um. Last year, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.840 I wrote a blog post about Moldova because some people 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:17.160 were trying to hold a protest and the government was, uh, 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:19.880 let's just say not too thrilled about it, um, and 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.120 then it was it was a little violent, as I remember, 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.000 but you know, not like the they ran situation, which 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:29.000 we'll mention in a moment um. But people were using 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.960 their Twitter and Facebook status is to indicate where they 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:36.080 should meet, and it's very difficult for those who are 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.320 not tuned in. If the authorities are not paying attention 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.279 to it, um, it's very difficult for them to figure 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.080 out how hundreds of people are leaving the scene before 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.880 they can get there and reassembling in another location which 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.400 has been organized, you know, using these networks. And I 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.080 mean it could also be done over SMS, text messaging 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.000 over your phone, which is you know, that's essentially what 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.800 Twitter has built on top of. But yes, you could 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.960 do it on a much more UH scale down version 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.280 where you just take Twitter out of the equation entirely. 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:09.920 And in some cases that's actually a good idea because 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:14.240 if you have left your Twitter account public, then anyone 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.919 could see what you are updating UM just by following 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.800 the public timeline, even if they're not following you specifically, 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.480 And before long, people in charge may actually or the 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.120 people who oppose whatever your position is UH could end 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.839 up keeping up with you on every move you make, 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.040 and because you're essentially broadcasting it, and if they're able 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.320 to keep up with it, then they're able to possibly 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.120 negate whatever move you want to make, and then you're 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.600 back to square one. So UM. Yeah, there's some downfalls 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.800 to this kind of approach of using social networking to 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:51.880 to UM organize protests, which we really saw in Iran. Yeah, 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:53.800 one of the things before we get to that, one 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.240 of the things that makes this possible is UM and 0:05:57.279 --> 0:05:59.559 this is not even a Twitter adaptation. This is something 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.120 that other people came up with. UH. Is the use 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.840 of the hashtag UM. You might say, well, if thousands 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.039 of people are posting Twitter messages. How you know, in 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.120 the public timeline, how am I supposed to figure out 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.520 what's going on in you know this particular situation. Well, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.159 people have taken to using hashtags, which is using the 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.880 pound sign, the number sign or the octathorpe as I 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:28.159 like to use it, um and uh, you know, establishing 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.600 a particular tag so that everybody is putting that particular 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.720 string of text in their Twitter messages makes it much 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:38.159 easier to search. Yes, and most Twitter programs that I've 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.280 seen lately, third third party programs allow you to track, um, 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.200 those trending topics, so you can see if a lot 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.680 of people are are mentioning including this tag, then it 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.240 is very easy to identify what's going on with the 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:57.960 particular so excuse me social situation and um, you can 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.760 you can follow it very very easily. And another thing 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.000 that people have been doing, which is one of those 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.400 those gestures that you can very quickly identify as Okay, 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:10.760 something's going on because everyone seems to be doing this, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:16.160 would be changing your avatar on Twitter. This became There 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.920 are two instances I can think of on Twitter where 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.040 this really kind of swept across the service. At least 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:26.080 the people I follow one was the blackout in response 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.680 to Australia's UM policy to filter the Internet. Now, in 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.600 this case, Australia was talking about creating a law that 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:39.760 would allow UM, the government to tell Internet service providers 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.400 UM what they can and can't let through the country, 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.560 and it was getting to a level of censorship and 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:50.400 information control that a lot of people were not very 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.480 comfortable with Internet service providers. They weren't very comfortable with it. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.600 I mean, these are private companies that are being told 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.800 by the government what they can and can't do as 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:02.600 far as their main business UM. And as a response, 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:07.520 in order to raise awareness, UH, people began to turn 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.080 their their Twitter avatars into just a black square and uh, 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.240 you know, at first that just got a little bit 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:18.040 of attention, But then some pretty high ranking as far 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.600 as followers go, Twitter members began to do this, Like 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:25.640 Stephen Fry, who has hundreds of thousands of people following him. 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.280 He blacked out his avatar and then left a message 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.800 about what was going on. And then you started seeing 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.040 black avatars pop up all over the place, just just 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.440 black boxes, and that's all that was there was to it. 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:37.960 And then usually there'd be a link somewhere like why 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.240 is my avatar like this? Read this, and it would 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.360 link to an article about the situation. As a result, UM, 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.760 the whole policy got a lot of attention directed toward it, 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:53.840 and they ended up delaying that decision. UM the last 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:55.880 night I had heard that decision actually did go through, 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:01.360 but it went through ages after the first discussion. So 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.439 it was something where the the reaction did kind of 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.480 cause some change, but it was it was more of 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.400 a delay than anything else. But the other case where 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.040 people changed their avatar, that was very got the end 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.200 up making the news. It was more than just something 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.840 that happened on Twitter. Was the Iranian election and the 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:24.959 fallout that followed it. Um. You began to see people 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.280 change their avatars where they would give them all a 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:32.200 green tent. Yes, some people would UH replace their avatar 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.200 was a simple green square, as in the case of 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.360 the blackout, but others were most I think most people 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:41.400 were tainting, which is UH, which is what I saw 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.199 the most frequently, and the idea and they were also 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.360 going in to change their settings to the time zone 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.640 where Tehran is located, which is the capital of Iran. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.800 And UM the idea would was twofold really to show 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:02.640 support for the Iranian protesters, but also to theoretically confuse 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.880 the government UH, using the hashtag and the time zone 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.680 to make it appear as though UH there were more 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:14.240 people involved than actually were, and to maybe mask the 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.400 identities of those who were involved. UM. At least that 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.920 was the justification that that I was reading about. And 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.079 many people are still UH. I still have not changed 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.920 their avatars back to their original state, even though those 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.760 UH revolts were taking place last summer. Yeah, this was 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:35.400 back in the yeah, mid mid two nine, depending on 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.400 people listen way way after the fact. So so, yeah, 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:43.760 the and this was one of those things where it 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:47.839 definitely helped raise awareness very quickly UM, and some people 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.360 were using Twitter and Facebook to try and organize meet ups. 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.880 But then quickly there was a message that went around saying, 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:58.280 you know, you probably shouldn't UM published this stuff because 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.520 then it just gives the information to the Iranian government, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.440 which was monitoring both Facebook and Twitter as much as 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.880 it could to try and determine what protesters were up 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.520 to and what their plans were so that they could 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.400 have a response unit in place. UM to take care 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.840 of UH, to take care of that without it getting 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.240 out of control. And then and there were also reports, 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.640 uh what, I don't know if they were ever substantiated, 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.240 but there were reports that the Iranian government was actually 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.720 publishing its own tweets as if it were they were 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:36.360 coming from protesters, to try and spread misinformation, confused matters 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.920 um to uh, to kind of take some of the 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.080 steam out of the movements so that it wouldn't be 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.960 as effective. And that's one of the big issues about 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.000 social networking is that when it gets into something like this, 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:51.800 when it's really highly politicized, it's hard to tell if 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:54.760 the information you're receiving is genuine or not without it, 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:59.360 without it linking to some other objective source that you know, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.760 for a act has got really good fact checking, really 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:07.600 strong editorial voice. Um. Without that kind of link back 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.720 to something that you can rely upon, you have to 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.560 worry that maybe whatever it is you're reading isn't completely genuine. 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:17.360 And uh, I mean that's that's the case with anything 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:19.880 you see on any social networking site, but in particular 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:21.840 when it's talking about something like trying to make a 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:26.439 big change. Well, um, I think speaking of change, we 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.760 should talk about the social media event that's going on 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.400 right now as we are recording that. Because UM, this 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.520 is another particularly positive way I think that social media 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:44.560 is maybe drawing attention to and helping organize efforts to 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.480 UM help the people in Haiti. UM. Just a few 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.920 days before we recorded this podcast, UM, there was a 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:56.920 magnitude seven earthquake UM that killed thousands and thousands of 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:02.000 people and ends thousands more. Umfrastructure in Haiti is in 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.960 ruins right now, and UM it's actually only a couple 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.600 of days after that as we are recording this. So 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:14.040 UM as of January, this is an amazing thing. UM. 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.240 The American Red Cross was able to report that it 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.280 had raised four points seven million dollars simply from people 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:24.200 who were text messaging. And you might say, well, how 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.280 are they doing that. There's a company UM called m give. UM. 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.160 The president, Tony Aello, was actually talking to Lauras Adell 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.480 on NPR as I was driving home yesterday and I 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.679 listened to their his explanation of things. UM, this is 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.760 a pretty neat deal. UM. You you get a code, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:44.360 a text messaging code, UM five digit number, and UM 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:49.280 you send a short message to that number. And basically 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.199 what happens is and give works with the phone company, 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:56.360 your your cell phone provider, and the nonprofit organization in 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:58.960 this case the American Red Cross, or there are a 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.880 couple others like White Left GJN has one UM and 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.920 UH once. What happens is if you send a text 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.520 message to that number with the the pre organized message, 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:13.760 they will take ten dollar donation and debit that to 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:15.959 your cell phone account. That's that's in the case of 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.719 the Red Cross one. I think White Left John's it's 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.640 five dollars, but yeah, it's the same same concept, So 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.760 it's whatever whatever they've agreed to. I mean, it tends 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:26.800 to be around the five to ten dollar mark because 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.080 that's that's an amount that most people are comfortable giving. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:31.480 UM you ask for more than then it gets a 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.000 little more complex. Although the Red Cross one allows you 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.920 to give up to three times using that number. Okay, 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.240 so you can. You could give thirty dollars if you 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.920 wanted to using that UM. So that I mean, and 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.320 of course just doesn't prevent you from donating in other 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.520 ways as well. It's just one of those things that 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:51.520 makes it very very easy to react in a very 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:55.320 timely matter without it without it taking a lot of 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.480 time or effort, on your part. I know it sounds 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.480 kind of callous, but I really do believe that the 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:04.240 easier you make it to donate to a cause, the 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.960 more people will donate. As soon as you start putting 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.800 barriers in there where like okay, well as soon as 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.200 you get home call this number, or as soon as 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:15.640 you get home log into this website. Once you start 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:18.520 putting that time difference in there, from the moment when 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.440 someone hears about something to the moment when someone can 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.480 do something about it, right, you cut down on participation. Well, well, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:28.320 this is exactly what Mr Riello was saying, that it's 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.040 just making it very, very simple. And they had interviews 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.800 with a couple of people who had been making donations. 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.600 One guy they talked to um had received a message 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.240 on his cell phone and said, well, you know, this 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.360 is so easy. I'm just gonna reply right away and 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.360 do this, and it just it was just very very simple, 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.920 very very easy. The ten dollar amount, Mr Rallo said, Um, 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.640 it's a very it's the same kind of thing. Ten 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.360 dollars doesn't really seem like all that much, but it 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.760 makes a difference for people who might not have otherwise donated. 0:15:56.760 --> 0:16:01.400 When that's I mean, because Yeah, to know, there's not 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:03.880 is not a lot for any individual, but when when 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.800 you get such an effective campaign together collectively, that does 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:13.120 become a pretty large sum of money. Well. Kerry Houseman, 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.360 who is a spokesperson for the American Red Cross, said 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.760 that based on how effective this is, she expects that 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.920 this is going to make real lasting change in the 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:25.960 way that they are able to raise money in the 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.960 wake of a tragedy like this, because, um, it's just 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:33.480 so simple, yeah, that it happened. I'm hoping that this does. 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:35.800 I hope that's the case. I hope it's not the 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:39.160 opposite where it becomes like a unique event where people 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:41.680 do this because it makes them feel good, and then 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:44.120 the next time something happens they say, well, I don't 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.000 need to donate to that because I donated back after 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.880 the earthquake in Haiti, so why would I you know, 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.280 I don't need to donate again. Hopefully that won't happen, 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:57.120 especially because like you were saying, I mean, it makes 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.920 it so much easier. Um, it removes those areas. It's 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.200 not asking for a lot of money, and in many cases, 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.600 this this money is you know, it's it's going to 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:12.560 causes that are vital for people's survival. So well, um, 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.160 you know there is such a thing as donor fatigue. Um. 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.520 But but no, I think and and of course m 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.399 give did not pop up mysteriously overnight after the the 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.720 Haiti disaster, so that this is something that that has 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.200 been going on for some time and this just puts 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.280 it in the spotlight. But um, there there are other 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.119 ways in which social media has helped. Um, having the 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.760 meme spread through Facebook and having a link say, you know, 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.080 it explains here's what's going on. You can donate to 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.760 Care or the American Red Cross or one of many 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:47.320 other organizations. Just click here and it takes you right 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:49.520 to the page. It's right there in your live feed 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:51.960 and makes it so much easier to you to identify 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.240 and share with people. With Twitter, I mean Twitter really 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.280 helped broadcast the whole text message thing quite a bit, 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.360 because I mean, if we're just talking about text messaging, 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.600 we're not really tough about social media, right. There are 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:06.359 social networking, uh beyond networking with your immediate social circle. 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.040 But there were so many people who were talking about 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.520 on Twitter that it was trending then and that helped 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:14.760 quite a bit too. I'm sure that that really gave 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:19.200 a boost to the UM to UH submissions of of 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:23.760 the you know, the ten dollar donations. Well, UM, actually 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.600 getting back to how easy this is, but back to 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.359 a point that you made earlier. UM. Caroline McCarthy Sena 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.000 had has also written an article in which she was 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.680 she had talked to the marketing director for Charity Navigator, 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:43.800 which is a website UM that basically evaluates nonprofit organizations 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:48.480 and non governmental organizations. UH, you know, based on where's 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.200 the money going? UM, can you count on it actually 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.560 being used to help the people in whatever situation you 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:56.200 want to help them? And how much of it is 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:01.320 going toward administrative costs? How how reputable is the charity? Yeah, 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.600 very important questions to ask. And it's a very it's 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.040 a very neat site. But the director, marketing director send 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:11.760 Manuity UH said that four thousand bogus donation sites were 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.880 set up after Hurricane Katrina. UM. And and so it's 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:20.919 very important to make sure that where you're making your donation, UM, 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.720 you know, is actually ending up where you think it 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:25.919 is going. And it's very easy with things like you 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:31.040 r L shorteners and you know, five digit codes that 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.399 you would text message to make sure that you are 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:35.560 getting it from a reputable source, and then you're actually 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:37.640 making a donation at the site you think you're doing 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:40.240 that because, uh, you know, it is very easy for 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.240 a scammer to set up a site to try to 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:44.240 fool people, and you can bet that they will do 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.600 that in this case as well. On a related note, 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.520 I noticed already that there are Facebook groups popping up 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:51.920 where it's saying things like if a million people join 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.720 this group, I will donate a dollar per person for 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:57.800 twa haiti or whatever. A lot of those end up 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.399 being bogus. It's just someone who's creating a group and 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.359 wants to see if they can maybe actually get to 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:05.320 a million people. Um it's those are a lot harder 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:09.280 to to research than the charities because, uh, you know, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.840 often you don't have any real information about the people 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.800 who started it. I would just recommend that maintain a 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.040 healthy dose of skepticism whenever you encounter those kind of groups, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.480 especially if they want you to go to a different link, 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.040 because that's a good chance that that's going to take 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.679 you somewhere, whether there's some malware or a phishing scam 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:31.680 or something like that. UM. I always hesitate to join 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.159 any sort of Facebook group. Uh, mainly for that reason, 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:39.080 I would rather look into alternatives. It's not that I 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:40.800 don't want to help, It's that I want to make 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:42.760 sure that my help is going to the right place 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:45.800 and then I'm not going to suffer for helping trying 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.040 to help someone else. So any group where you see like, 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:51.240 join this group, and after we hit a million users, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.840 we get to you know, this much is gonna be donated, 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.639 because honestly, why would someone put that kind of of 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:01.640 uh of a requirement? There isn't that Isn't that really 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.359 ultimately heartless to say I need a million people to 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.680 join this group, and if a million people join, I'll 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.000 donate this money. Why why not just donate the money now? 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.919 Without a million people joining? What benefit is there to 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.480 have a million people joined the group? I mean, there's 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.320 no reason for it. So once you start asking those questions, 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:24.520 critical thinking is so important on the Internet, folks, and 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:26.959 especially when you're talking about things about trying to make 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.840 a social change, because everyone wants the world to be 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:31.439 a better place and we all want to feel like 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.080 we've contributed to that. But let's make sure that we're 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.080 really contributing to that we're not just fooling ourselves. Um, 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.040 and that that kind of I don't know if you 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.159 want to mention anything more before I moved on, but 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.440 there was one other kind of related thing to this 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:47.400 I was going to go off on. I was going 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:50.640 to uh to mention that Caroline McCarthy said that if 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:53.679 you receive an email from someone claiming that they are 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:58.000 a victim, that's also sort of a red flag. Yeah, yeah, 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:02.840 that you know, Hey, my my house got destroyed in 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:07.359 this problem. It's essentially a twist on the Nigerian scam. 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.240 It's really and which has been around forever. I mean 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:14.760 that that's that was facts stuff before it was email. So, UM, 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.359 I wanted to mention another thing that happened recently on 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:22.280 Facebook which tries me crazy, which is the Facebook bra 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:26.240 color deal. So if you were on Facebook and you're 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.119 a guy, and you notice that all your female friends 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:31.600 were posting colors, and you were wondering why and you 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.439