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When Your Life Depends on Likes and Shares
Observations on crowdsourcing.
He was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. First came the chemo to get the tumor’s size down, then the surgery to remove it. He wasn’t 60 and had worked odd jobs most of his life before gaining popularity as an artist. He had no health insurance. How would he pay for any of this?
In an interesting twist this patient was an artist for a band you’ve probably heard of and they have many dedicated fans. The artist started a Go Fund Me.* The band posted it on their Facebook page and within a week he’d met his goal and took his fundraiser down.
*The proper name is all one word GoFundMe. I’m spelling it out here.
Later one of his associates said, “Go Fund Me is a popularity contest. If you have connections who have connections you’ll get there. If not, forget it.” Turns out fundraising online is the equivalent of your high school election for class president.
Go Fund Me nation.
A guy I knew from high school had an accident while on vacation and all his hospital care was out of network. His wife started the fundraiser. I saw it on Facebook when someone shared a link to it. His friends donated. If he doesn’t make the money via the fundraiser, then what? The bills go into collections and…
