Why Twitter altruism in Covid second wave gives us hope for social media

People have collated resources and connected patients to hospital beds, stepping in to fill the gaping hole left by the Indian state’s ineptitude. It has been a little bit of a miracle. Written by Atish Padhy The Covid-19 pandemic has given us several painful images in the last two years. During the first wave, the image that stayed with us was of migrant workers walking inhuman distances in the wake of an arbitrary national lockdown. During the second wave, the enduring image has been that of our social media feeds awash with desperate calls for help. Yet, amidst the shortage of critical medical equipment and the overflowing of cremation grounds, one cannot help but be struck by the great altruism and activism of thousands of regular social media users. People have collated resources and connected patients to hospital beds, stepping in to fill the gaping hole left by the Indian state’s ineptitude. It has been a little bit of a miracle. But how has Twitter (and the larger social media ecosystem), which at the best of times appears to bring out the worst in people, managed to incentivise strangers to go out of their way to help each other? How…
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