Thank You Economy Revolution

Soon your social impact score will be measurable and include your generosity. The problem being that generosity could become more disingenuous, but at this point, the world should take any type of consideration it can get.

In the next few years you can expect online algorithms to track your preferences and activities to help influence more positive behaviour. For instance, Mashable explains how cameras in a subway car may use technology to scan the face of a pregnant woman, then send you a text to give her your seat.

But we don’t necessarily need technology to be munificent.

 

Richard Janda, a professor at the Faculty of Law of McGill University and co-author of a recent book on corporate social responsibility, says, “The Internet helps us to gauge or measure our reactions relative to those of others. It does this by allowing us to see and count how many others are swarming to what I like.

 

“We need to know that others are doing so as well, so that my willingness to give gains collective significance.” It’s a form of accountability-based influence. The more you can compare yourself to others and see what they’re doing, the more you know they can see what you’re doing.

***** I've had personal experience with this new generosity. When riding a bicycle across America in the summer of 2010 (Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer) we put ourselves in the hands of strangers and were never disappointed. When I got back I had to have chemo again, so I put my life in the hands of capable strangers again. Never been disappointed as strangers continue to save my life.

I've also done research on this topic, research that agrees on the idea that helping one another is natural, shaped by our evolution and genes. Here are a few of my favorite sources for this research:

* NonZero by Wright

* Mind of the Market by Shermer

* Selfish Gene by Dawkins

* Thank You Economy by Vaynerchuk

We don't need to look far to see confirmation. Everyday we cooperate and collaborate. Cooperation and collaboration are on the dramatic rise thanks to the web. The web is also reinforcing generosity as currency, generosity as marketing. Does it matter if people do the right thing because it is the right thing to do or because it is in their self interest to do so? Not really (lol).

Marty

 

Via Andrew Spong