Is social media exploiting charitable giving?

Last month, your news feed will have been inundated with naked, glowing faces due to a popular trend which involved individuals taking a selfie and tagging a mate in order to donate money and raise awareness for Cancer Research. This ‘No Make-Up Selfie’ trend became extremely popular and raised 8 million pounds for Cancer Research.

“Concealer doesn’t count as make-up…right?”

Although the amount raised was very impressive and it was good to see people rallying together for a cause, something about the trend annoyed me and it wasn’t just that my news feed became a tribute to generous, ‘au naturel’ faces.

The ‘No Make Up Selfie’ is, undoubtedly, self-indulgent – you promote yourself as a good person while forcing people to see a close-up of your face.

Many of the photos of people’s radiant features received comments complimenting their natural beauty, putting the focus back on the individual and away from the cause.

It was a strange juxtaposition – raising awareness for a debilitating disease, that can leave one sick and frail, by showing the world how hot you look without makeup.

The ‘No Make-Up Selfie’, charity or indulgence?

I don’t mean to sound like I hate charity – I mean sometimes I give my change to the homeless if we make eye contact on the street and I feel awkward – I’m just aware that social media could move charity away from its generous, frequently self-less, core.

Our social media personas are frequently distinct from who we are in reality. We project a certain version of ourselves in order to gain recognition from our peers.

I would be more inclined to display pictures online that make me look like a fun-loving social bunny as opposed to the reality where I sit in my pyjamas most evenings reading weird conspiracy theories.

Through social media I believe charity may become another ‘trend’, a way to advertise ourselves as ‘good’ people , separating charity from our actual lives and relegating it to our online projection. Charitable behaviour is something we should continually strive for and practice within our day to day lives and not just when it’s a Facebook fad.

I fear that social media will only endorse the idea that charity counts only if other people know you did it.

If you help an old woman across the street we don’t need a photo of it – the motivation for charitable acts should not be based on the number of likes you could get.

‘Good deed done for the day! #samaritan’

Charitable giving should not only lie in the realms of the internet but should be a part of daily life.

So do something charitable today whether it be baking Grandma a cake, giving some pennies to the collection can or sponsoring a polar bear.

Sponsor a polar bear – just don’t update your status.

I’m not saying using social media for charity is a bad thing – it’s great for sharing your outrage at injustice in the world, badgering your friends to sign a petition and pressuring people to donate to your charity run. But I believe that charity should not revolve around whether or not it’s going to show up on peoples’ news feed.