Judith Stern Peck sees the website as, "an opportunity for all of us to be part of the larger international Jewish community"

Online social networks are having a significant impact on our lives.  Through serving as a means for communication and friendship, studies show that they are actually influencing our behavior, our thoughts and emotions.  Here are some people’s recent opinions on the matter, that are worth thinking about…

An article in USA Today on Social Networking, quotes Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, co-authors of the just-published book, “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives”.

The authors suggest that the world is governed by what they call “three degrees of influence” — that is, your friend’s friend’s friend, most likely someone you don’t even know — who indirectly influences your actions and emotions.

For example, when a friend starts exercising more, “I change my mind about how much I should be exercising or I share stories with my other friends who are influenced to do the same. You either change your behavior or you transmit information about the behavior to others, who change their behavior,” says Fowler.

JGooders founding investor and board member Judith Stern Peck shares this perspective in an interview in today’s Jerusalem Post about online giving, “[Our] website can most certainly be used as an education tool. It’s a chance to transmit Jewish values and an opportunity for all of us to be part of the larger international Jewish community…Philanthropy is no longer just about where you give or how much. It’s about how you give and how you involve your children in the process.”

In an Time Magazine article about “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live”, author Steven Johnson gets it right when he says of the 140-character micro-blogging tool, “There’s a kind of resilience here that is worth savoring. The weather reports keep announcing that the sky is falling, but here we are — millions of us — sitting around trying to invent new ways to talk to one another.”

Here’s to an ever-increasing and ever more inclusive conversation, to a social networking buzz that influences us to become more involved individuals who will build a better society.

Tags: Jewish philanthropy, Judith Stern Peck, philanthropy, Social action, social networking, Tikkun Olam

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