The Wired Generation Reaches Out

I'm sitting here at home tonight, watching the last hour of the Hope for Haiti Now telethon on...well, every channel. I had just heard about it yesterday; I don't know how long it was in the planning, but it was quite a few A-listers.

What struck me about the telethon was, while I doubt the content and format of the telethon was very different than telethons thirty years ago, the ways viewers can donate are quite different. 30 years ago, there were no other ways to donate other than by phone and possibly post mail.

For Hope for Haiti Now, you can donate by:

• calling in (and talking to a celebrity);
• visiting the website;
• text messaging GIVE to 50555; 
• downloading music tracks from the telethon at http://www.itunes.com/haiti;
• downloading the video of the telethon from iTunes;
• downloading the Hope for Haiti Now iPhone app;
• and joining the cause on Facebook.

I'd like to see 1) what the demographic breakdown was of the telethon viewers was; and 2) what the breakdown of the telethon donors was. How many older adults (50's and up) visited Facebook or iTunes or texted their donation, and how many teens and twenty-somethings stuck to only the phone?

On an educational note, educators are like telethon organizers - endeavoring to reach out to kids to get involved, so to speak. Are we really using all the right tools in the right ways?

Posted in: change, communication, community service, networking, social software