Society Goes Online

Man is a social animal. This has been true for thousands of years. Regardless of the progress made by mankind over generations which now allow people to live quite comfortably on their own, people continue to crave the company of others. For this reason, there have always been places where people could socialize.

It could be a pub or a tavern, or maybe the weekly gathering at a church. People have always found such avenues to satisfy their social craving. However in the modern world as people get busier and busier, they often find it difficult to get time to socialize as much as before.

People do not have time to visit an old friend or relative. Yet the desire for their company remains the same.  People also wish to meet new people and make new friends. But where is the time for all this in today’s hectic world? Social networking it seems is the answer to this great need. Social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace have proved to be wildly popular and has taken the world by a storm.

Now people socialize from the comfort of their homes and offices. You no longer need to travel great distances to catch up with old acquaintances. All you need is a laptop with an internet connection and maybe a webcam. You no longer need to find time exclusively for socialization.

You can talk to your friends online in between checking your work mail. This has huge effects on society. The social networking phenomenon has essentially rewritten the rules of society. It has blurred the usual distinctions between countries and region, keeping everybody connected.

The world which was once vast has now turned into a global village with the only citizenship needed an internet connection. Society has truly gone online.

The Growing Prominence Of Women In Society

Humanity has always tended to regards women as inferior throughout history. Even while revered for their beauty, they were considered to be incapable of taking care of themselves. Their sole job was to cook for their husbands and raise children. This attitude must have developed in prehistoric times when men had to hunt big animals to feed their families.

Men being larger and stronger tended to be the hunters while women tended to the household. However these were roles assumed due to necessity and not roles that were dictated by nature to be followed in any situation. Now times have changed and even the men nowadays would scream and run if they were put in any remotely dangerous situation.

In today’s civilized world, one’s physical abilities are no longer the sole factor determining your value and position in society. Not to say that the predator-prey relationship no longer exists. It does exist but it is subtler and seldom shown obviously. People engage in it while doing business, while playing a sport, in just about everything. But they do it with a gracious, smiling air which makes it seem like everyone just wants the happiness of the other. In these modern hunting games, women can play on an equal footing quite easily.

Women have now grown to prominence in all sections of society, in all domains. They have excelled in fields which were considered to be only for men just a few decades ago. They excelled in sports, swimming, weight lifting, everything. In fact, women have proved themselves to be better than men in several professions.

With their ability to empathize more than their male counterparts, women psychologists and counselors are more sort after than male ones. Men should accept that women are here to stay in the workplace and get on with life. It can only be better than it was before.

Help Yourself and Someone in Need at the Same Time

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 16:  (L to R) CNBC anchor ...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

There are children all over the world going barefoot every day putting their health at risk, and you can help them by buying a pair of shoes for yourself. There is a company that donates a pair of shoes to someone in need every time they make a sale. It was the idea of Blake Mycoskie who rose to fame through reality television, competing on The Amazing Race.

Mycoskie was moved to do something for those in need as he travelled the world after doing the television show. He learned through his travels that there are needy children across the globe who do not have shoes. He also learned that going barefoot is one of the biggest health threats to these children, who can contract any one of a number of diseases from the soil that they are walking over every day. His solution was forming a group called the Shoes for Tomorrow Project. This social entrepreneur came up with the idea for Toms Shoes, the company which donates a pair of shoes every time it sells a pair.

The shoes that he sells are based on comfortable loafers that are made in Argentina (espadrilles), which he thought would be a big seller in the United States. He was right. Instead of keeping all the profits for himself, though, he decided at the start that a fundamental part of the business would be putting shoes on the feet of those less fortunate around the world. The more his charitable effort was publicized, the more the sales grew and the more people he could help. Toms Shoes has provided free pairs of shoes to more than 400,000 people in 24 countries around the world. Mycoskie says one of the most rewarding parts of his job is to go on shoe drops when the free shoes are delivered to the needy and watch their reactions as they slip them on.

Homelessness in Society

We’ve all seen the woman begging for change on a street corner or the man asleep on a park bench, but have we ever thought about how they may have gotten there?

Many people in our society are just one step away from being homeless. Whether they can’t find work or have other financial or personal issues, everyday thousands walk the fine line between having a home and living on the streets.

So, if you are one of the fortunate ones, please give to those in need. Charities are in need of many things during the holidays, even things as simple as laundry detergent and shampoo can go a long way in helping a family in need.

Take a minute and imagine yourself living in your car. The only things that you have in the entire world are stored inside that car, so how many things are you doing without. Food? Clean clothes? A shower? A warm bed? There are so many things people take for granted every day that the homeless and others in need have to go without. So, take some of your own wealth and spread it around to your fellow man.

Donating to charities will not only help those in need, but it will help you along the way as well. For instance, giving away clothes that you don’t wear very often or that don’t fit you anymore will clear out a lot of space in your closet. By letting your children go through their toys and donate the ones they don’t want to play with anymore, not only will you be making another child in the world happy, but you are also getting rid of some of the clutter in your home.

This holiday season, be sure to share your wealth with those in need. You never know how much good your donations will do. It could even save someone’s life.