My last article in 2011 for The Minaret was based on technology and how it has changed our lives in terms of our relationships. This year, the theme of technology has continued when AnnMarie Walsh’s life changed thanks to social media.
The 41-year-old Walsh was homeless in Chicago for more than four years after losing her job. Suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and a rheumatoid condition, she says she joined Twitter to help her function better in social settings. She began tweeting, using the handle @padchicago, from a local library about homelessness in an attempt to raise awareness and erase stereotypes that people hold against the homeless. Walsh spoke of misconceptions that people have when thinking of homeless people, saying that they think, “homeless people are all criminals, on drugs or alcoholics.”
However, she explained that homeless people are just ordinary people who have “college degrees and because of the economy got laid off” and are now simply suffering from financial difficulties. She also urged people to “sit down and talk to someone who is homeless once in a while and find out more of the story” before judging them.
As time went on, she began to gain more followers and is currently followed by almost 6,000 people. Walsh says that using Twitter has made her “realize how many good people there are out there.” And indeed, these good people have come out in masses to help her.
From offering to pay for her cell phone, to giving her gift cards, clothing, bus passes and even a laptop, some of Walsh’s followers have tried to make her situation easier.
A filmmaker even reached out to Walsh and asked her to be a part of his documentary “Twittamentary” that speaks on homelessness in America. Because of this documentary, Walsh now attends “Tweet-ups”, or Twitter meet-ups, across the country speaking on the subject of homelessness and sharing her amazing story.
However, the biggest gift of all that Walsh received was a home. She attended a Twitter event more than a year ago and made contact with a hospital social worker who helped her move into transitional housing. She now lives in a facility for women in Chicago called Deborah’s Place. Founded in 1985, it is run by volunteers and staff who help homeless women in Chicago find stable housing, steady income and improve their situations.
Thanks to her publicity on Twitter and with the help of good people, Walsh has been off the streets since April 2011. She says “This has been amazing how my life is changing because of social media! Never in life [did I guess that] I’d be international news.”
She uses her twitter account to promote organizations such as a website called “justcoz.org” that allows people to donate a tweet to help raise awareness for various causes.
One such cause on this website is “Stop Child Abuse”, which spreads awareness about child abuse and collects money to help children in the U.S. Another cause which Walsh supports is the OpSafe foundation, which gathers relief funds to send to Japan due to the devastating earthquake it endured last year. In response to a comment about how these groups’ publicity is being increased due to her support, she says, “I don’t think that I am so amazing. It’s the power and community of social media that is.”
It’s a story like this that really illustrate how much technology, specifically social media, can affect a person’s life. If AnnMarie Walsh had not created a Twitter account and began writing about her situation, her story would never have been known and she would still be homeless.
We all have various reasons why we use social media.
Sometimes we use it just to pass the time, or for more vain reasons like wanting to be reminded about how many people we have as “friends” and because we feel that our every thoughts should be shared with the world.
But AnnMarie Walsh’s story shows that social media can also be used to better one’s life.
Specifically, it is the good people on these social media sites that can help one another and improve a person’s situation; something for which I am very happy about.
Paola Crespo can be reached at Paola.Crespo@spartans.ut.edu