Facebook can still be a force for good

In times of disaster the network effects that exist within the world's largest social network demonstrate that people do actually take a break from selfies to collaborate in doing some good.

Celeste Barber? Yep, I didn't really know who she was either until recently.

While Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister was coming back from holidays in Hawaii and demonstrating relative inaction on the bushfire front - comedian Celeste Barber was hard at work promoting her facebook fundraiser raising much needed funds for the resource starved NSW Rural Fire Service.

Almost $33M donations at 6 Jan 2020, 10.41AM NZST after running for just 3 days (Fundraiser set up 3rd Jan)

Celeste Barber has raised over $30M for the NSW Rural fire service (far eclipsing any official or third party fundraising effort) within just 3 days.

The network effects and social amplification of facebook have delivered 17X the donations that more traditional fund-raising efforts have delivered in comparison ($2 million raised by the City of Sydney and ABC on New Year’s Eve for the Red Cross).

The fundraiser has received an extraordinary amount of donations from around Australia and overseas, and the awareness of Australia's plight has been further amplified as a result by celebrities such as Pink, Selena Gomez, Nicole Kidman, Tara Moss, James Charles, Naomi Watts to name a few.

In many ways the action displayed by local and international individuals in galvanising around a cause like this demonstrates that when push comes to shove, human beings are generally decent and at the end of the day, facebook, like other social platforms amplify what we are feeling - good or bad (and in this particular case - allows us to take action upon that feeling).

It's important to take note of this next time we go on our usual facebook bashing tirade during the next news cycle. While regulation and keeping big tech in check is important for any democracy, let's not forget than when utilised correctly these platforms can also be a force for good.

P.S If you haven't already please go over and donate to Celeste Barber's bushfire appeal here.