remembering the current past...
why do marketing gurus come up with the most ridiculous names when inventing their latest and greatest internet social networking or other such worldwide website. i mean everyone thought it was humorous in a ‘cutesy’ way when you first heard the name ‘GOOGLE’ but no one thought ‘twitter’ had the same appeal. but here we are a few years later and it stuck.
whatever my next venture is going to be i am going to come up with some ridiculous name so that at first people hate it then later they can’t get rid of it. GUAZZLE.com, BLOMBIE.com, and SHUCKSLE.com come to mind, but i’ll get back to you on that.
twitter, 140 characters of shear nonsense scripted out with abbreviated everything’s. one day whole sentences will just look like ‘JEBYO!WBYIFHY?@2LEGIT’ and people will know exactly what the other person is talking about. but i am not one to judge since literally (and sadly) i have to admit that i have 6 twitter accounts for various projects. (@anberlin, @stephenanberlin, @anchorbraille, @facelessint, @modestyguild, and i may or may not have made one for my dogs… i was really bored).
you can follow people, i guess you can lead people, you can even put a pound sign to show, ‘hey i have something to say about that random topic as well!’ right this second such depth inspiring and soul searching topics as #letsbehonest, #theboysareback, and my favorite #fatthoughts are amongst the top 10 trending topics (i could only wish i was making this up).
as you all know there was a devastating earthquake in haiti this past week. it was atrocious and i was floored when watching videos of the damage online. faceless international scrambled to send as much aid as we could, along side many of you and a lot of other americans. it was astonishing to see the world come to the aid of the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, 25 countries have given goods, relief effort, and given donations. here in america we, the citizens, have given an astonishing 275 million dollars!
even now, several days later and they are amazingly pulling victims from the wreckage. they even rescued a 5 year old boy, named monley EIGHT DAYS after the earthquake! even our troops are working tirelessly, 11,000 in all, to help get additional supplies and much need medical aid to these wonderful people.
right after the earthquake, not 48 hours after i noticed something rather peculiar on twitter. in the trending topics i saw that haiti only occupied one of the 10 trending topics where as the previous days all ten were about haiti and the relief efforts.
that got me thinking, if our attention spans as americans wanes after 48 hours what is to become of hatians in 48 days? what about 4 to 8 months? then i wondered what became of the victims of the indian ocean tsunami that killed 200,000 people not so many years ago, it seems we have all but forgotten them.
we need to begin to ‘remember the current past’, realizing that just because they are out of site does not mean they need to stay out of mind. i challenge you to reevaluate yourself in 6 months and see where your thoughts are on the topic of haiti. these earthquake victims lives have changed forever, the rebuilding process might take years if not decades. stay involved, not only financially, but also donate your time as well. haiti is not that distant of a land, flights are usually inexpensive, and they are going to be in dire need of assistance these next few years.
but this isn’t just about haiti, this is about not allowing the little distractions in life to consume the time that we have to work on the bigger picture issues that are colossal in our lives right now. use your time wisely, dedicate your time LONG TERM to those who truly need help, and not just immediately but an ONGOING dedication to the issues that are important to you right now.
whatever my next venture is going to be i am going to come up with some ridiculous name so that at first people hate it then later they can’t get rid of it. GUAZZLE.com, BLOMBIE.com, and SHUCKSLE.com come to mind, but i’ll get back to you on that.
twitter, 140 characters of shear nonsense scripted out with abbreviated everything’s. one day whole sentences will just look like ‘JEBYO!WBYIFHY?@2LEGIT’ and people will know exactly what the other person is talking about. but i am not one to judge since literally (and sadly) i have to admit that i have 6 twitter accounts for various projects. (@anberlin, @stephenanberlin, @anchorbraille, @facelessint, @modestyguild, and i may or may not have made one for my dogs… i was really bored).
you can follow people, i guess you can lead people, you can even put a pound sign to show, ‘hey i have something to say about that random topic as well!’ right this second such depth inspiring and soul searching topics as #letsbehonest, #theboysareback, and my favorite #fatthoughts are amongst the top 10 trending topics (i could only wish i was making this up).
as you all know there was a devastating earthquake in haiti this past week. it was atrocious and i was floored when watching videos of the damage online. faceless international scrambled to send as much aid as we could, along side many of you and a lot of other americans. it was astonishing to see the world come to the aid of the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, 25 countries have given goods, relief effort, and given donations. here in america we, the citizens, have given an astonishing 275 million dollars!
even now, several days later and they are amazingly pulling victims from the wreckage. they even rescued a 5 year old boy, named monley EIGHT DAYS after the earthquake! even our troops are working tirelessly, 11,000 in all, to help get additional supplies and much need medical aid to these wonderful people.
right after the earthquake, not 48 hours after i noticed something rather peculiar on twitter. in the trending topics i saw that haiti only occupied one of the 10 trending topics where as the previous days all ten were about haiti and the relief efforts.
that got me thinking, if our attention spans as americans wanes after 48 hours what is to become of hatians in 48 days? what about 4 to 8 months? then i wondered what became of the victims of the indian ocean tsunami that killed 200,000 people not so many years ago, it seems we have all but forgotten them.
we need to begin to ‘remember the current past’, realizing that just because they are out of site does not mean they need to stay out of mind. i challenge you to reevaluate yourself in 6 months and see where your thoughts are on the topic of haiti. these earthquake victims lives have changed forever, the rebuilding process might take years if not decades. stay involved, not only financially, but also donate your time as well. haiti is not that distant of a land, flights are usually inexpensive, and they are going to be in dire need of assistance these next few years.
but this isn’t just about haiti, this is about not allowing the little distractions in life to consume the time that we have to work on the bigger picture issues that are colossal in our lives right now. use your time wisely, dedicate your time LONG TERM to those who truly need help, and not just immediately but an ONGOING dedication to the issues that are important to you right now.
Comments
I sure hope you keep this portal up. You have had some great blogs ove the years. always though provoking.
Thanks
We are so self absorbed and getting worse by the minute. I hope we do stay the course with Haiti. They really DO need us and we can sacrifice just a little here and there to make a huge impact. I am going to give up Starbucks and give the savings to Haitian recovery projects. Dare you all to make your own changes. I had a pretty big Starbucks issue!
It IS pretty cool that using twitter helped troops and volunteers find Haitians in desperate need during the first hours and days after the quake. Now that is a good use of a social site!
As for Haiti, that's a cause & country I'll always feel strongly about & have for some time. We got too involved with charity efforts when I was in high school for me to just forget about it. I fear I've been a little annoying with trying to get my friends to do something, but Haiti needs it.
So, was this just a one time thing or will it continuously be on that website?
We all want to know, as you can tell. :-)