The concept of “paying it forward” isn’t exactly a new one. In essence, it involves a random act of kindness; an action that is “paid forward” by each recipient to someone else. The widely-held belief is that the whole world becomes a better place in the process.
The concept of “paying it forward” is an old one, but social media such as Facebook have helped popularize it to a much greater extent.
The Facebook era has helped to further popularize the concept of paying it forward, and has even spawned an informal event called “Pay It Forward Weekend,” which this year will be held Jan. 16-18.
According to the Facebook event page–which as of Monday had more than 200,000 registered attendees and nearly 2 million invitees–this will be the third annual Pay It Forward Weekend worldwide.
Last year 484,743 people accepted the invitation to pay it forward, and more than 6.1 million people saw the invitation and learned about the cause.
“We are asking everyone to do at least one random act of kindness (more than one is even better),” host Jackie Wallis writes. “It is very easy to participate. All you have to do is do something for someone or some organization without expecting anything in return. Pay for a stranger’s meal, send someone a card, volunteer some time. The ideas are endless.”
“By clicking join, you can make a difference and who knows, maybe change someone’s life,” she states. “Get on board, invite all your Facebook friends to join and let’s see if we can change someone’s world this weekend. Who knows, it might be your life that gets changed.”
Do you believe in the concept of paying it forward? Do you plan to participate in this event? If you’ve participated in something like this in the past, how did you “pay it forward?” Please tell us by posting a comment.
