Pay it Forward (Just Bru)

Pay it Forward1

Posted by Bru May 20, 2004 12:08 AM

Yesterday night I've seen Pay it forward and found it so... so inspiring!!!
Well, for those of you who haven't seen it (and trying to not put any spoiler here), it's the story of an eleven years old child who's given this "exercise" on the first day of the social studies course:

Find an idea that will change our world.
Then put it into ACTION

Interesting, isn't it?
Well, what the boy does is even more cool: he builds up a social network (hmm a multi-level structure, actually, since it was just working in one direction). A social network built upon the idea of doing good actions in order to change the world.
This is the schema:

find three people who need your aid, and do them a favor. Make it something big, something they can't do by themselves.
once you've helped them, tell'em the rules, and let them find other three people in need.

and so on...
Ok, I know, maybe it looks silly, but it's got something... at the very least, it made me think. And that's not so bad to start with :)

It made me think... about social software (strange, uh? :) ). Yep, and the potential power of 'em. Power to influence the people, at a rate and in a range far more interesting than most traditional "marketing" tools. We already know that, and if I were a little less tired (maybe I'll do tomorrow) I could certainly find some good papers on this.
Even the game I followed a few days ago was a clear example of this power: the day after that, I made a survey and found that something like 70% of my (Italian) blogosphere followed it. And it was a silly game :)
As a sidenote: my dear friend Michele argued that it could have something to deal with the 23 skidoo conspiracy :)

Anyway, just think of it: what makes blogs so different from mailing lists or mail-chains? because that's the point! To cut it short, I think it's a matter of motivation: first of all, when you get an (e)mail, you get an interrupt. That requires a series of operations on your part to stop what you're doing at the moment, set an ideal "bookmark" on it, go to the mail, open, read, evaluate it (unless, of course, you were actually mainly reading emails).
While, if you go and read a blog, you are already doing two things:
1) you made a choice, and used some of your emotion to go and visit the page. For as little as it may seem, it's still a choice.
2) If you're reading my diary, chances are you identify yourself with pov, or at least with some thoughts of mine. This is how mass-media works, from ads to soap-operas to realityshows to detailing "personal" stories during the news... all this "tricks" aim at making you identify with the casual "hero", and thus make you think as he/her, and thus, in the end, influence your choices.
So, why not doing it once for "good"? Why not using blogs to spread some positive perspective on life, things, people? After all, it works on the other side too: Moody posts will influence those reading us. Well, it's also a fact that moody posts are usually "more successful" than cheerful ones in bringing attention to the blogger... this is another interesting point, and it's got to do with interaction in a more general way. I'll have to dig more...

So, do you want to change your world? Because I do. Not the world, that's impossible, just mine, that's ours, because if you're reading this, you're already part of my world too, and vice versa. Wanna help? :D

hmmm... I think there's enough space here for some digression on blog-research ethics... but maybe tomorrow.

Have a good night.