Article in brief: the author discusses the advantages and disadvantages social media has on charity work.
Last month was the Holy Islamic month of Ramadan, the month of forgiveness and giving. It is a time that is impatiently awaited by Muslims all around the world. One of my favorite parts of Ramadan is that it makes people realize how comfortable our lives are in comparison to those who own less than what we have been blessed with. That alone drives us to donate more and sympathize with the less fortunate.
In the old days, a person’s good doing was solely between her/himself. We didn’t get to know who donated to whom as often as we do now. With the rise of social media, a lot of users are eager to post about their good deed to show people how they spent their day. What used to bother me about this is that not only did people broadcast their deeds publicly, some included the face of the person they donated to in the post as well.
I used to believe that that defied the purpose of donating, as it is best to keep it a secret. However, as time passed, I learned that posting about our good deeds online could be quite beneficial to the growth of our society. Still, it is important to note down that donating is about helping others, it does not give you bragging rights in any way or form.
Nowadays, some people donate for the sake of inflating their egos by posting about it online and showing the world what great people they are. It is disappointing that such attitudes exist; however, we need to look for the silver lining. No matter what the person’s intentions were, the less fortunate got some help at the end of the day. In addition, others get motivated to help those who are in need of it. Therefore, our focus must shift on how we represent those donations online.
Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that posting about donations can encourage others to donate themselves. However, we need to take a front and stop humiliating the people who need the donations by not posting their pictures online.
Instead, we should encourage people to do more good in the world, and share a bit of our happiness with others. In this country, we are blessed with so many things that others would love to attain. It is only right to show our gratitude and lend a helping hand.
This gives self-satisfaction and more importantly spreads kindness in the world. There are many benefits to donating, so our society must find a civil way of endorsing it.
We must continue to do good work throughout the year, and not restricting our generosity to the Holy month of Ramadan. Moreover, instead of thinking about how good performing charity work would make us feel, we should move our attention on how our actions would make the other person feel, as their smile alone is worth it.
