How can you save the world without leaving your sofa? Is that even possible?
This week the experiment is in how to help other people. Does one week of making the world a better place make me feel like a better person? Does it help me in some fundamental way?
To see how the week has gone so far, check out yesterday in my experiment on how to help other people.
How to Help Other People: Slacktivism or just modern economics?
Helping others via the internet has gotten a bad reputation. It’s considered by some to be a lazy outlook on social justice. However, in a weird way, I think it’s the logical extension of the attention economy.
As a consumer in modern society, the greatest asset I have, at least as measured by many advertisers, is my attention. They are willing to pay quite a bit to get a hold if my attention, and even more to keep it in some cases. What does this mean for me? Well, it opens up a whole lot of opportunities for me to do good for the world.
I might not have money to donate to every cause that asks, but for many charities, attention is as good as money. You can click an ad that sponsors charity, follow someone on twitter, of click like on facebook. There are all sorts of actions that can be undertaken that provide a small (but still valuable) payout to charity. All it takes is a bit of research to learn how you can contribute.
However, in this case, I’ll give you a bit of an easy lead on where to find places where you can exchange your attention for making the world a better place.
Start with Ecologyfund. It’s a website that takes profits from clicking on ads and uses it to save wilderness lands around the world.
Another great stop is Hungersite (and all the associated sites). You can help provide food for the hungry and support a host of other causes just by clicking on ads.
Are these the perfect ways to save the world? Perhaps not, but they do make the world a bit better at no cost to you, and that sure is a good start!