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My article from an old Media & Tech blog (August 24th 2011)
What matters most: Simply the altruistic act itself or the cause which the act should be for?
Nancy Messieh relates a do-good effort by a programmer, who shared his Starbucks card online so that someone else could buy coffee. He encouraged people to put money into the card, so that still more could enjoy a cup of brew. Another programmer, however, threw a wrench into the effort, by sharing the code with which money on the Starbucks card could be transferred to his own card. There is an intriguing human drama being played out here, and I’ll speak to this shortly.
I have a dear friend, and he used to talk about owning several mobile phones and a handful of cars. He talked about spending about $3000 a month on phone calls with a girlfriend in another country. Just one less Hummer, one less Nokia, and more calls on Skype (which are free), and imagine how little sacrifice he actually has to make to do a world of good for the disadvantaged. I told him how else he could’ve spent his money.
Reference: Technology and altruism: Social media can bring out the best in people… but does the cause matter?
Nancy Messieh relates a do-good effort by a programmer, who shared his Starbucks card online so that someone else could buy coffee. He encouraged people to put money into the card, so that still more could enjoy a cup of brew. Another programmer, however, threw a wrench into the effort, by sharing the code with which money on the Starbucks card could be transferred to his own card. There is an intriguing human drama being played out here, and I’ll speak to this shortly.
For now, suffice it to say that that original card ended up having $11,000 of credit to buy coffee!
There’s a part of me that simply can’t let go of the idea that the cause matters more than anything else.
Messieh is right: I am working on a conceptual framework, with practical applications, which is centered on the purpose, target or vision. What do we want most? What are we trying to accomplish? What is the need we wish to satisfy? So with hordes of families living in heartbreaking poverty, $11,000 could certainly put food on the table for many of them. Instead of buying coffee.
I have a dear friend, and he used to talk about owning several mobile phones and a handful of cars. He talked about spending about $3000 a month on phone calls with a girlfriend in another country. Just one less Hummer, one less Nokia, and more calls on Skype (which are free), and imagine how little sacrifice he actually has to make to do a world of good for the disadvantaged. I told him how else he could’ve spent his money.
While I appreciate the theory of how generous people were, and how so many people were clearly willing to pay it forward, but had it been for a more worthy cause, it would have been much more worth the effort.Let’s step back from this, shall we, and try to look at it more broadly and deeply.
Psychology is a science of human behavior. While it has offered decades of insight on what drives our actions and words, in truth it is often difficult to discern what makes us tick inside and what in particular we do with our money. So the second programmer may have had a negative intent by cracking the code for the Starbucks card and taking the money in it. But how do we explain the fact that he ended up selling his card on eBay and donating the proceeds to charity? Apparently it polarized people into lauding the do-good effort or criticizing the hack job.
Moreover, Messieh’s question about altruism versus cause isn’t just a practical one, but it becomes a moral one.
I don’t have clear answers here. Rather, my answers are thrown into an admixture of more questions, thoughts and insights about who we really are as people. One of us does something. Another reacts. Still more others react to his reactions. Then Messieh and I weigh in on this whole affair. We see, don’t we, how easily complex a human drama can become.
But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be clarified fully or even understood for us to glean precious lessons from this. First, when someone says something or does something, which triggers some reaction inside of us, it’s a good idea to pause and reflect even a moment on what that reaction is about. To pause and consider other possible explanations for that something that someone says or does, other than the singular explanation embedded in our reaction. To pause and at least entertain the possibility that an apparently bad behavior actually has good intentions behind it.
Second, social media has gotten a beating of late, in light of the rioting afflicting the UK and the US. We mustn’t forget that social media can also be engaged for the good, as several people did in the UK in an effort to clean up after the rioters.
Finally, as I tweeted earlier, The cause matters the most. But anytime, anyone does good for anyone else, it always matters. So, in the end, both programmers put a lot of cash into the coffers of selected charities. Messieh reinforces their do-good efforts further by writing about these:
I don’t have clear answers here. Rather, my answers are thrown into an admixture of more questions, thoughts and insights about who we really are as people. One of us does something. Another reacts. Still more others react to his reactions. Then Messieh and I weigh in on this whole affair. We see, don’t we, how easily complex a human drama can become.
But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be clarified fully or even understood for us to glean precious lessons from this. First, when someone says something or does something, which triggers some reaction inside of us, it’s a good idea to pause and reflect even a moment on what that reaction is about. To pause and consider other possible explanations for that something that someone says or does, other than the singular explanation embedded in our reaction. To pause and at least entertain the possibility that an apparently bad behavior actually has good intentions behind it.
Second, social media has gotten a beating of late, in light of the rioting afflicting the UK and the US. We mustn’t forget that social media can also be engaged for the good, as several people did in the UK in an effort to clean up after the rioters.
Finally, as I tweeted earlier, The cause matters the most. But anytime, anyone does good for anyone else, it always matters. So, in the end, both programmers put a lot of cash into the coffers of selected charities. Messieh reinforces their do-good efforts further by writing about these:
If you go to the site where the card once was, you’ll see a short entry, part of which reads:
We believe this is the start to a bigger more glowing picture. In the last 5 days or so, we’ve received hundreds of stories of people doing small things to brighten a stranger’s day: Paying for the next car at the drive through. Sharing a pick me up with someone who has had a rough time. Charging up a phone card and sharing it with strangers at the airport. The list goes on, and on, and on…Do you have stories where you meant to do good, but somehow it didn’t work out or perhaps others misinterpreted it?
Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!
Ron Villejo, PhD
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