Tag Archives: social media for good not evil

Hello, thirteen.

Now that we’ve reentered adolescence, I’ve been thinking about those years before I was tethered to screens. The impossibility of the impossible I knew at thirteen isn’t so different from the potential we find online today. At thirteen, anything and everything seemed attainable. At thirteen, the drama of social life was extreme and it was a job in itself to keep up. It was exhausting. Screens are exhausting.

I got sick contracted the plague just after Christmas, and I gave up on getting much of anything done for a week. I’ll watch movies and read, I thought. I’ll just unplug and relax. Why don’t I ever remember that the one thing I don’t do when I’m sick is relax? That only happens on fake sick days.

I did unplug for the most part. I’d check Instagram and scan my phone for work emails, but seldom went into my office. If I did, the sofa was usually as far as I made it, and then it was TV and tea and remaining optimistic that once the Tylenol kicked in I could do some work. I did what I could.

As the plague faded, the cough stuck around. There’s nothing quite like a cough that won’t quit at 3am to let you sit with your thoughts about where you are and where you’re going.

Time is the most valuable coin in your life. You and you alone will determine how that coin will be spent. Be careful that you do not let other people spend it for you. - Carl Sandburg

This balance I’ve been seeking, this focus I’ve been trying to reclaim, the creativity that hasn’t seemed to flourish the way it once did, these months I’ve spent reading all these great books about technology and screens and our brains has seen it begin to return. But it’s not just what I’m reading, it’s how I’m reading. I am regaining my focus by unplugging. Not because of the shift in how I use my time, but in the actual cognitive difference between time I spend with and without screens.

I’m not leaving this space, I’m just going to change things up a bit. For the better.I saw so much social good in social media in the last year. I saw so much creativity. I plan to take part in as much of that as I can in 2013.

Bring it on, 2013. Amazing things are ahead.

FilltheCup

I wrote last week about the bloggers I see using their platforms to open eyes and ears to issues that need to be discussed. The blogosphere is filled with everyday reminders that doing something small is doing something huge. That the doing something, anything is what matters.

In the last months, I’ve written about hunger in America and shared stories of friends who’ve gone abroad to document the realities of food crises in India, Africa and Sri Lanka, and those doing so right in our own backyards. I’ve wondered how much I can do. How much I can help. Why I can’t do more? (The battle of Mother Teresa and Veruca Salt wages on.)

Blog the change. Be the change. #FillTheCup

Those of us lucky enough to contemplate whether a cup is half-full have likely not faced the reality of a cup completely and utterly empty. Of being unsure of how or when it will be filled.

Katherine Hodgson for the World Food Program

Bright red cups like the ones these children hold are a sign of hope and health to 20 million children in 70 countries around the world.

Each day, the World Food Project is filling bright red mugs with rice, beans or porridge and bringing meals to those who might otherwise starve.

25 cents fills a cup. A quarter. A bit of loose change.

THE WFP School Meals program not only gives a child a healthier life now, but a chance for a brighter future. Because the WFP knows kids can’t excel in the classroom when they’re hungry. The WFP also knows that in the poorest countries, school meals could also encourage families to send children to school in the first place - especially girls.

Those of us lucky enough to contemplate whether a cup is half-full are likely unaware that in many parts of the world sending girls to school is deemed unimportant; that educating girls isn’t seen as having much of a ROI.

The WFP has created a “take-home rations” program for families who send girls to school. They go home with “basic food items, often including a sack of rice and a can of cooking oil” and the potential to become more than they could have imagined possible.

One day, these boys and girls could become great thinkers, innovators and leaders. Right now, we can keep them from starving. Let’s plan for the future by dealing with the present.

Gabriel Baptista for the World Food Program

I can spare 25 cents a day. I can fill a cup or two, maybe more. But even if I can only fill two cups, or one cup, it’s FILLING CUPS. Feeding people who would otherwise go hungry.

That’s when the Veruca business gets a reality check. Doing something is always doing more than has been done before. There is no minimum amount of help that is helpful.

Today I am placing this cup on my desk. And I’ll begin filling it with change each day. Some days more, some less. (All help is helpful, Veruca.) At the end of the month, I’ll take that change, add it up and send it to the World Food Program School Meals via PayPal. And then I’ll start again.

Now, I am passing the cup as it was passed to me (thank you, Dresden andThe Mission List). I’ve asked five truly inspiring bloggers I know to write, tweet, FB post, Instagram, or shout from the rooftops that by giving a little or giving a lot to the WFP, we can make a difference. We can #fillthecup until this cup runneth over. Here are a few posts from those who took the cup for a refill:

My Cup Runs Over So Now I Will FILL A CUP by Krishann at His Mrs Her Mr
Filling Cups, Changing Lives ~ #fillthecup by Heidi at The Conscious Perspective

You can learn more about the World Food Program Fill A Cup program here, and follow the WFP on Twitter and Facebook.

You can also join the conversation on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #fillthecup.

And with this info, I’m handing you a cup, too. One currently empty but brimming with hope.

Spread the word. Spare some change. Be the change.