The Power of Social Media

Last week something that no one could have thought would happen happened, the Notre Dame Cathedral Caught fire and and much of the steeple burned down. The Cathedral that is a national landmark located in Paris France was blanketed across every news program and social media platform. Within minutes of the news breaking and the world seeing what has happened many money raising efforts were formed to help fund the rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral. However these money raising efforts did not get far before sever backlash.
With the amount of money being donated to this effort many people have raised the question why do we spend and donate our money towards this effort when we well know that the catholic church is not hurting for money in the slightest, and also where this amount of money would be spent and utilized in a more effective way. I personally have heard a lot of different ideas like using the millions of dollars to help the less fortunate work their way out of poverty, or using the money to clean up the ocean. One specific tweet that likely has no factual background information claimed that the money donated to this effort would have been more than enough to clean and remove the entire pacific ocean trash island. The more I hear about how these people are spending their money incorrectly the more I realize that social media works in an interesting way.
In this situation what people are donating money to is a great cause in their eyes and the money will likely do good things for the church that has undoubtedly helped countless people, without social media and news the event would not have reached nearly as many people and people are being praised for donating and helping. However on the other hand social media is also being used to shame people for donating to this cause and are making a stink that people are not donating to what they think is important which in my eyes is very interesting that these platforms and people on these platforms both have the power to sway peoples opinions enough to work for and against good causes like this one.