Repurposing social media

Social media has its drawbacks. It’s a shallow, easy vehicle by which to propagate erroneous or misleading information. It has made it easier to detach from human connection through the false promise of digital relationships. And it has stoked political and personal division by catering to the loudest voices rather than the most responsible or rational.

But it isn’t all negative. It’s also a convenient way to stay in touch with those physically absent, a channel by which to unite over cause or principle and a crowdsourcing megaphone for those in need.

It’s this last function that deserves highlighting this season.

GoFundMe, the social media fundraising platform, raised more than $9 billion from hundreds of thousands of donors since its founding in 2010 for causes, people and organizations. Roughly a third of those funds go to medical campaigns each year — about $650 million — in a form of community involvement that is heartwarming, if not always reliable: the kindness of strangers.

The platform is seeing a bump in activity, largely due to the unforeseen circumstances brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Facebook has jumped into the fundraising game as well and helped raise more than $2 billion for different nonprofits and personal causes. Instagram also began testing a personal fundraising feature this year.

These companies are not creating such funding pathways purely out of the goodness of their leaders’ hearts. There are transaction feeds and processing fees, seemingly insignificant, that add up to huge sums. Plenty of crooks have tried to scam kindhearted folks into donating to bogus initiatives. And the platform certainly isn’t fair or meritocratic — there’s an element of timing and luck and whimsy that determines which fundraisers are seen and shared and successful.

But this is the way the world works, and it has no bearing on the generosity of those opening their wallets for family, friends, acquaintances and strangers alike.

These campaigns have raised funds for victims of car wrecks and workplace accidents and cancer treatments and assaults. They are connecting money with those who need it.

It’s easy to decry social media, particularly when such companies have fallen under the scrutiny of Congress of late, but especially in the holiday season we must remember its potential for positive impact and focus our attention and efforts here.

Many of us could stand to share more fundraisers and positive messaging and less angry political rhetoric. We may not have direct power over the algorithms that determine what content receives the largest viewership, but we can certainly choose where we focus our attention throughout the day.