I've
been thinking a lot about epidemics as of late, likely due to my recent efforts
to improve good2gether's social media presence, the ongoing H1N1 business, and
my re-reading of parts of the Malcolm Gladwell book, "The Tipping
Point."
To
summarize, Gladwell makes the point over and over throughout the book, that
epidemics are non-linear. He says that phenomena like fashion trends, crime
rates, and disease transmission rates, may exist at steady state until some
small event "tips" them, and transforms them, overnight, into
epidemics.
An
article published on the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC) website,
"Civic Health Index finds America in the Midst of Civic Foreclosure,"
contributes some interesting information. The article says that 72% of Americans
have cut down on civic participation since the beginning of the recession.
Conversely, it mentions that despite such dire times, millennials have the
highest volunteering rate of generations surveyed* (at 43%), and that the rate
actually increased from 7.6 million in 2007 to
8.2 million in 2008. Additionally, the article mentions that "millennials
who use social networking sites for civic purposes are far more likely to
actively engage in civic participation in their communities"... and, as
rephrased by David B. Smith, Executive Director of the NCoC, "God,
Friends, and Facebook provide a civic safety net."
So
why is this relevant, you ask? We are entering a time in which civic
participation and communications are completely redefined- when the ubiquity of
facebook and twitter, myspace and linkedin, are effectively changing the rules
of the game. Although the advent of the recession tipped overall civic
engagement negatively (the 72% drop in national participation) it may have been
partially counteracted amongst millennials by the increase (tipping) in usage
of social networking.
As
the NCoC’s article suggests, we are now in a time of crisis. A Chinese proverb
says that ‘Crisis’ can be interpreted in two ways, either as ‘A Time of
Danger,’ or as ‘A Time of Opportunity.’
To apply it to us, as Americans, here and now…
-Our
current crisis is multifaceted; the recession, our poor progress in realizing
the Millennium Development Goals in Poverty Eradication, Gender Equality,
Environmental Sustainability, etc.
-Our danger
is apathy, to allow civic participation tip even further in a negative
direction, to adopt the attitude of ‘every man for himself.’
-And
our opportunity is to make the effort. That’s it, just make the effort. Whether
you have time to volunteer every week, or just two minutes to write a check, or
you have an old computer you’re planning on throwing away, someone can make use
of it.
And
what if you have none of these?
Then
just spread the word. (The following is a shameless plug)
--Help friends in Non-profits get more exposure by
telling them about good2gether
--Make use of your magical facebook powers by becoming a
fan of the good2gether page or by joining the DoGood cause… and invite your
friends!
--Learn about local and national events, volunteer and
in-kind donation opportunities by following good2gether on Twitter
--And lastly, TELL PEOPLE THAT DOING GOOD AND BEING
INVOLVED WITH YOUR COMMUNITY IS IMPORTANT TO YOU.
As
Gladwell states in ‘The Tipping Point’ chapter on connectors, “It is safe to
say that word of mouth is- even in this age of mass communications and
multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns- still the most important form of
human communication.”
Any
small bit of effort could be the catalyst that ‘tips’ civic engagement and the
‘doing of good’ from an abstract concept into an epidemic.
Who
doesn’t want to live in a better world?
-Posted by April Wachtel
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*Please note that although millennials had higher rates of volunteerism than other generations surveyed, other generations had higher rates in other categories like material contributions. To read the complete article, please click here
