In the era of connectivity, mobile culture has seen a rise in apps promoting altruism. By leveraging technology for the greater good, these apps have facilitated a shift toward social responsibility and compassion.
Apps like “Be My Eyes” assist visually impaired individuals and allow for independence and inclusivity. Sighted app users are called to assist visually impaired people with tasks and queries through a video chat. Interestingly, the newest image features in ChatGPT 4o also support this need.
Similarly, Olio tackles food waste through community food sharing. Nextdoor facilitates neighbourhood support, while GoFundMe mobilizes financial aid.
In an era where mobile devices are often seen as tools for self-indulgence, it’s heartening to see technology being used to foster altruism, empathy, and social responsibility. These apps remind us that our connectedness through mobile culture can be used for good, making a positive impact on the lives of others.
Hi Nicole,
Thank you for sharing this list of apps. I must admit that this was a blind spot for me as I was only familiar with GoFundMe but agree that this is encouraging to see these kinds of initiatives. What I am curious about is how the culture surrounding these apps impacts how people interact with them. Using GoFundMe as the example, the original intent of the platform was to specifically raise money for entrepreneurial projects, but over time this shifted into crowdfunding initiatives in response to natural disasters, personal crisis, and more recently an uptick in social and political causes (Wade, 2023). At the heart of the platform is the goal of transparency, so donors know exactly where their money is going to and removing some barriers when it comes to charity, but when the platform is unintentionally brought into conversations about social and political funding campaigns, does that shift the purpose of the platform? As a general question, I wonder as current events and the subsequent culture shifts, how do the owners of these apps respond to the shifting interactions with their platforms? Do these apps that originally began as altruistic ventures have the potential to shift into something more or even something else entirely?
Thanks again for the list!
References
Wade, M. (2023). ‘The giving layer of the internet’: A critical history of GoFundMe’s reputation management, platform governance, and communication strategies in capturing peer-to-peer and charitable giving markets. Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing, 28(4), e1777. https://doi.org/10.1002/nvsm.1777