Celebrating Tech4Change Blog Day

Social media has an image problem. I think we all know why.

But ActionAid knows social media has more potential than this. We have created a special day to share stories and ideas about how social media and new technology can be used for good, not just inanity. Welcome to Tech4Change Blog Day.

We know that social media can be more than a platform for acquaintances to broadcast their alcoholism via blurry Saturday night snaps to 300 ‘friends’. It can transcend status updates peppered with misspelt Scrubs quotes, OMGs, LOLs and ROFLs.

It is easy to think of new technology in terms of wealth and the West, consumerism and corporate culture. This digital divide is one of the many indicators of poverty. But entrepreneurs are inspired to challenge the standard way technology is used to (over)share about life in the developed world, harnessing social media tools to unite, instead of gossip and divide.

Social media is increasingly being used to help women like Josefina (below), a single mother with a disability living in the rural highlands of Guatemala.

For every bunch of weird and inane Facebook apps that offer to calculate ‘How Sexy Is Your Name’, there is one like ‘KivaLovers‘ which connects you to people like Josefina who need small microfinance loans to boost or start a small business.

Josefina received her first microloan four years ago. She used it to open a shoemaking shop with her nephew, which helps to support her children. Guatemala has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the Americas.

When potential loan recipients like Josefina become known to Kiva, the KivaLovers application on Facebook share their stories with you and allows you to become their microfinance lender with a few quick clicks. You can also receive recipient alerts on your iPhone, or via Twitter.

Kiva is a great example of some of the ways in which social media can be used for social good. If you know of other great organisations or individuals who are harnessing new technology for social change, participate in ActionAid’s Tech4Change Blog Day by signing up to our Bloggers Unite account,  leaving a comment below, or better still, blogging about it and send us the link. As the day progresses, we will be putting up links to blogs that feature posts about the potential powers of social media and new technology.

Happy Tech4Change Blog Day!