And here’s something else “they” will struggle to understand…

“But why do people do it? I just don’t get it…”

How many times have you heard people ask that question when they discover that you work in something to do with blogging, Twitter and Facebook?

They start to struggle when you tell them most people don’t do it for money. That makes them very suspicious. Not for money? Must be something really suspect then – possibly perverted. Perhaps you’ll end up using *that word*: “altruism”. That’ll get them smirking nervously. Altruism. Oh yeah.

Try them on the term “culture of generosity” and you’ll probably get personally abused, as if the very idea of human acts of online kindness between “strangers” marks you out as some sort of deranged and – quite frankly – dangerous fantasist with a weakness of character.

Some of the coverage of Twitter over the past fortnight has been lamentably stupid. Elin’s post provides some hilarous examples. The come-latelies don’t understand the culture of generosity. It’s that feeling I get when I read the Mail: it’s-all-going-to-hell-in-a-handcart, glass-half-empty pessimism. People who just can’t bring themselves to feel good about other people. I honestly don’t know why.

We should round these cynics up and bus them into London tomorrow night to watch ‘Us Now‘ – a new British documentary film the ways people are using the Web to support each other in non-commercial  activities across the political, social and cultural spectrum. The film covers a range of subjects: the site couchsurfers.com runs a system of free accommodation for travellers; slicethepie.com connects music-lovers to the demos of hopeful musicians, where they take their pick and pledge a fiver towards the making and marketing of that band’s CD, and of online fan-owned and managed football club Ebbsfleet United. The film’s on tomorrow night at 8.30pm at the Barbican.

BTW I found out about this film through Twitter again (thanks to @leebryant) who provided a shortened link this morning to an article in the FT.com. If there are any nay-sayers reading this, that’s another great example of Twitter saving me time: I follow a network of people posting links to the things I’m interested in… it’s easier than searching.