Social media can genuinely be a force for good

Social media – it’s something with which I have a love/hate relationship. At times, it’s a fickle beast. Its ‘show reel’ of other people’s seemingly perfect lives can be a driver for all sorts of anxiety issues if you’re feeling a bit glum. Indeed, last year I nearly deleted all my accounts after I became hugely disillusioned by some aspects of racism and homophobia that the social media ‘bots’ couldn’t detect being thrust into the public spotlight.

Something needs to be done to better police such outlets (and please don’t tell me

I’m in the ‘Woke Brigade’ here, as hatred has no place in society at all, and nor does ‘woke’ as an insult) and social media, whichever platform you use, is far from perfect. But without it, we would also be worse off.

The evidence is here for all to see over the next three pages, where the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok have brought together car enthusiasts, like-minded people and the most caring and generous folk in society to help others. Causes such as REVS, which – with the help of the online Piston Broke Social Club – generated some amazing contributions to a community foodbank at a recent Bicester Scramble.

Or what about the people who donated over £30,000 to BEN on the recent Bangers4ben event I took part in? Without social media, we’d never have raised that amount. I know as much, because I brought in over £1000 through my own accounts. Our focus should be on getting the absolute best out of social media, and it does have many great purposes.

If you, your car club or your friends have got anything planned to raise money for charity, we absolutely want to hear about it and talk about it in these pages. Please drop us a line at practicalclassics@bauermedia.co.uk and we’ll help you in any way we can.

‘We need to get the very best out of social media’