I never fail to be amazed by the acts of generosity that my corner of Twitter is capable of.
Whether it be with their time, knowledge, support or actual cash they often go to great lengths to reassure my faith in human nature (something the mainstream media seems intent on destroying).
I wonder if this is common or if I was lucky with the community I became a part of on that particular platform. I have a completely unscientific feeling that it may be a feature of an earlier generation of Twitter users and it is less what newcomers experience.
No specific act has taken place today or recently that has spurred this though – in fact I fear these acts of generosity have become so commonplace that perhaps they are no longer sufficiently acknowledged.
The amount of people I know who regularly share their knowledge and experience with people when that is essentially exactly how they earn a living is just amazing.
In the years I have been on Twitter I cannot even count the amount of times people went out of their way to help me out. From small pieces of advice to (on at least a couple of occasions) full on pulling my fat out of the fire moments when I had royally screwed up professionally.
Not to mention the amazing financial and emotional support I got from Twitter last year when I did my two month Dryathlon. A significant percentage of the £1300 I raised came from people I met, or only know, on Twitter. That is amazing.
I hope I contribute my share back in this cycle of generosity. I certainly aim to but I sometimes feel the balance leans more to my receiving help rather than giving it.
If you are reading this I almost certainly owe you thanks. I really do appreciate every little piece of help and advice I’ve received over the years.
Cheers!
Digital by Default 
2 responses to “Generosity”
[…] Original source – Digital by Default […]
Head of nail hit sir! I think there are at least two factors that drive the wonderful sense of community that we both love and do our best to foster :
1. We work, and commune with, people who work in the public sector or those who work for organisations such as Mozilla and ORG, very talented people who could earn much more in the private sector but follow a passion for education, research, openess, freedom of expression – in a nutshell good people.
2.The beauty of the Internet as a open. (for now!) is that left field, naturally marginalised voices, can come together as an affecive, mutually support community.
Also, you reap what you sow, your openess, I believe that friendliness and all around decency inspires those around you to be better people, it certainly does me.