Today, Social Media is Winning

If you spend longer than ten minutes on the internet, you are sure to come across something that will make you want to punch something in the throat. Yes, that is probably an overreaction, but you all would be lying to yourselves if you refused to admit it was a little bit true. Or, a lot true.

Today, social media had not one win, but TWO wins in my book. The first came from one of my favorite Facebook pages, eva, that of Humans of New York (HONY). Brandon, the brains behind HONY, walks around New York City taking pictures of people and chatting them up a little while he does. He is skilled at honing (no pun intended) in on the most poignant parts of their conversations and shares it and a photo with 1.5 million Facebook followers. 

This afternoon, the Humans of New York Facebook page posted this photo, of Duane. It was the accompanying story about how he and his wife came to adopt their daughter from Ethiopia and how they are ready to adopt their son, but weren't "financially ready" to bring him home that touched everyone who read it. Adoption is expensive, internationally sometimes more so; this one would cost their family $26,000, making bringing their son home a distant dream. Duane knew that millions of people would see his photo and read his family's story and thought, "heck, maybe we can get a little help with this." 

I cannot imagine he or his wife thought that they would raise the whole $26,000 in an hour. Or, double that in three hours. I spent far too much time refreshing the donation webpage with my jaw on the floor. I tried to donate, but the server had crashed. When I started writing this, the donations were over $68,000 (now they are over $72,000) but I went ahead and donated a tiny bit anyway, hit refresh and my heart flipped seeing the ticker got up by the tiny increment that I donated. All extra money is going towards their kids schooling. 

The second win was in this sweet story my friend Ashlee shares about a recent afternoon and special Milky Way tradition with a little girl named Didi. Also, read the comments. Adorable times 1,000. 

High Five for social media!