Social Engagement: Supporting the Red Cross Online and Offline

If your morning routine is anything like mine, one of the first things you do upon waking up is to check your phone for new notifications. In fact, although you might not realize how much time you spend on social media websites throughout the day, statistics show that the average user spends 50 minutes each day on Facebook alone. These numbers are even higher for young people.

However, time alone does not present a complete picture of the influence that social engagement can have on an individual. The content that you consume and curate for yourself is an important factor in whether you consider your time to be well spent (and for the amount of time that we invest in this content, we should certainly hope that our time is well spent). For example, if you are a cooking aficionado or a devotee to dogs, it is reasonable that you might want to receive updates from the popular Facebook pages Buzzfeed Tasty or Dogspotting, respectively. I, for one, follow both of these pages.

But your newsfeed can – and should – be something that reflects your values as well as your interests. Being conscious of the content in your social media newsfeed can help to remind you of the things that drive and move you (even as you are reading Tweets and liking Instagram photos when you should be studying for an exam). As students, we may not always able to get out of the door and help those in our communities as often as we would like to. Social engagement is an easy and effective alternative for us to carry out and live by the Red Cross mission every day. Online, our impact can range from supporting and encouraging exemplary volunteers, spreading awareness of the services that the Red Cross provides, learning and educating others about the events around us, fundraising in times of disaster, and more.

To start shaping your newsfeed with more content that matters to you, connect with the Red Cross on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. By doing so, you can make sure that regardless of what you are currently working on, the Red Cross and the people it serves will always be there with you.

To learn more about how you can celebrate National Youth Involvement Month online
and offline with thousands of other youth volunteers, please visit this page on redcrossyouth.org.

– Waverley He, National Youth Council, Chair