Post, the Internet, and humanity?

There are plentiful social networks, news channels everywhere, Wikipedia hailed as the universal informational source; but there are darker sides too, just like in real world. And though we may choose to ignore the “wrong” things, we cannot ignore the many good things many communities managed to foster – and that is what the internet should be about, bringing people across the globe together. We started with online forums, e-mails, and now we have enormous social networks and video sharing sites.

The internet may seem almost invisible for the everyday person – sure, you can instantaneously find bus timetable, read some news, and pop a message to your colleague, but there seems to be a lack of physical interaction; after all, it is all just information shining at you from your device. And then it was when a community around Reddit had the idea to do a Secret Santa exchange via internet, with total strangers. How insanely that sounds? Maybe not so much, as the only thing you need is the desire to participate in an exchange, where you give something to a random person, and someone else gives something to you, and the only thing that you have ever known about the person is just a few lines of information on his profile. He can be a small boy from northern France, or Bill Gates – the possibilities are endless. The success of the project is nicely seen on the choice that you have in the exchanges. It started with Secret Santa, and now there are pins exchanges, Game of Thrones exchanges, soap exchanges, and many, many more. And all done through gifting things to strangers.

Postcrossing is, in its way very similar, however it is more continuous – it handles exchange of postcards. Again, simple idea, give a postcard a unique identifier, be given a random address and info about a person, and you can choose what postcard to send, which stamp to use, and what to write on the card. Once you send one through the system and the recipient gets it, you are next in the address lottery and can expect postcard quite soon. And there is quite a lot to expect, after all, Postcrossing members are scattered all over the world (allegedly there are active members in North Korea too). What’s all you need? The internet, a postcard, a pen, and a will to send a stranger a postcard; and will to read interesting stories from others.

And why, you may ask, did I mentioned these two projects? It is a prime example of the simple idea of simply caring about strangers, instead of exploiting them via online scams. That is something to value in today’s world, where you get increasingly exposed to more and more people, and even globally small projects can trigger an avalanche of “niceness”. After all, if at least someone wants only the beneficial side of things, it makes you feel nice. And even if you are pragmatic beyond belief you cannot avoid one simple fact – we are just smart apes sitting on a small rock propelling through space. And a wee bit on niceness and actual un-biased trust there and there does not hurt anyone.