Share or Die: Heartbeats and Hashtags

In the book Share or Die, Hannah Brencher tells us about her decision to become a volunteer worker for a whole year. She thought it was just going to be a waiting period to get through the recession but ended up being so much more. She was 22 and dedicating her first year out of college (still owing on loans) to being a volunteer for a place in the Bronx, New York. Even though most of her major living expenses were taken care of, she still knew it was going to be tough stretching out her money from week to week because living in New York is so expensive.

When she tells her friend about her decision to become a volunteer she already knew what he was thinking, just like what the rest of society thought. She was crazy. When he asked her why she wanted to be a volunteer she wasn't real sure but that question is what made her want to figure out a good answer. She knew when she told people she was a volunteer they thought of a poor girl with a huge heart and someone who is full of hopes and dreams. 

Hannah was volunteering in a non-governmental organization's office. Just two weeks into her volunteering she was already pressing to find more opportunities to help out in the neighborhood. Her urge to get to know the borough took her to Sister Margret's community life center, which was right near her apartment. Hannah decided she could help out there when her other job wasn't asking for eight hours every day. 

Even though the desk Sister Margret gave her was small, cramped, and cluttered it was warm and felt like home. She helped her update her website so people could learn more about the center. That was where the center was falling apart because before Hannah came along the website hadn't been updated for years. When people was looking for a website for the center they saw it was old and out of date and it was turning them away. 

I read more than one section in Share or Die but this one story stuck out the most to me. This girl, to me, was obviously not that self-centered or really too worried about what society thinks or even how much money she would make being a volunteer. I think her original reason to be a volunteer was to be able to have some experience in whatever she was doing because like we've been talking about no one wants hire someone with out experience. I can see where experience would really be essential for a job in New York because there are so many people that live in that area and so many wanting the same jobs. 

The thing that stood out to me the most was her helping Sister Margaret out when she had time. People these days only want to do things for others if they are going to get paid. It's sad but true. Sister Margaret’s center is a great example of how society is becoming all about technology and internet. Most of the older generation is computer illiterate because they have never had to worry about technology like that until now. They have always been a face-to-face or over the phone kind of society. She had been running her life center for 30 years and now was slowly going under basically because of her non-updated website and lack of information of the place on the internet. Not because of terrible service or anything that she had done it was just something as simple as her website. 

That brings me to the question, why do we rely on the internet for everything that we do and all of the information that we receive? I'm sure that there are plenty of places like this that have already had to give up their business because of the simple lack of updated information on the internet. If people went for so long with out it and made it just fine then, why can we not be more like that again? I’m not saying lets convert back to like horse and buggy time or to like 1999! I just think we are starting to rely too much on the internet as our resource, and I think it might be good if we think about starting to go back to having more face to face confrontation with people. We could even start checking out what we are finding on the internet with our own eyes, and getting our opinion on things instead of someone else’s who might see things different than we do.