Forget The Selfie. Let’s Make 2013 The Year Of The Unselfie
by Matthew Bishop
“SELFIE” is word of the year, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Posting a picture of yourself, taken on your mobile device, along with the hashtag #selfie, has become one of the defining features of the new social media world created by the spread of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on.
A selfie is something anyone can do. It is especially popular with celebrities, who are posting selfies like there is no tomorrow. As you can see, for example, Kim Kardashian, a reality TV star known as the Queen of the Selfie, posted one when she wanted the world to know that her body was back in shape after giving birth. You get the picture.
If this trend strikes you as rather, well, selfie-centred, why not fight back and promote the opposite, by posting an “unselfie”?
This Tuesday, December 3rd, is the second annual #givingtuesday, the opening day of the “giving season” (the name given to the fact that a large proportion of total donations to charity are made in the final few weeks of the year). To mark this #givingtuesday, anyone who wants to celebrate the powerful positive role that giving plays in our world is being asked to share their own unselfie on their favourite social media sites and by email.
It is really easy to create an unselfie. First, write clearly on a piece of paper what cause or causes you will be supporting this #givingtuesday. Maybe you are giving some money, or volunteering some time; you can mention more than one, if you are giving to more than one. Then, because this is about the causes not you, hold the piece of paper in front of your face, showing your personal giving pledge, and take a picture. Add the hashtags #givingtuesday and #unselfie. Then Tweet, Instagram, Facebook and email it as widely as possible.
Of course, your unselfie should be done in the right spirit. Not for nothing is there a long tradition of considering giving best when it is done in secret; the unselfie is emphatically not about showing off or advertising how virtuous you are being.
Yet the unselfie is worth doing because it can tap into the power of social media to inspire others and motivate ourselves by sharing our passions publicly. The unselfie is a way of saying, this cause is important to me – and seeing that, the people who take an interest in you may be inspired to look more deeply into the causes you support, or to think about, and hopefully unselfie, the causes that matter to them.
It was great to play a part in the launch of #givingtuesday last year, along with the 92nd Street Y, Mashable, the United Nations Foundation and over 2,000 partners, big and small, across America.
The data suggests that there was around a 50% increase in online giving on #givingtuesday itself. But there were several longer-term impacts that may prove of greater significance than the giving on the day. For many people, #givingtuesday helped them think through better their personal giving strategies. It also helped many non-profits learn about how to make better use of social media in fundraising and have a deeper conversation with their supporters. Companies that took part reported that they were able to engage better with the causes that motivate their employees. And all sorts of new partnerships flourished, as people and organisations got connected to others working toward the same goal.
#givingtuesday 2013 is shaping up to be even bigger. Already, over 8,000 organisations in all 50 US states have signed up as partners, from charities to businesses to small towns to cities. A group of charities in Baltimore have come together to pledge jointly to raise $5m on the day. New partnerships are emerging between the super rich and the rest of us as billionaires such as Steve and Jean Case and others offer to match #givingtuesday gifts with similar amounts of their own cash. And it is going global: significant #givingtuesday campaigns are under way in countries such as Australia, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Argentina and Singapore.
You can see how #givingtuesday is going, and get motivated by other people’s unselfies, by googling #givingtuesday and #unselfie. On December 3rd your unselfie can help fill cyberspace with an inspiring global celebration of the power of giving to build a better world. Let’s make 2013 the year of the unselfie.
