The Sweet Side of Social Media

News on social media can get rough. With all the hateful language and distasteful tweets lately, I thought I'd bring a little ray of social media sunshine to your Wednesday.

The Toronto Star reported that earlier this week, Twitter enabled a very touching reunion. Sometimes it truly is the little things that count, this reunion was between a little boy and his lost stuffed animal!

Adorable, right? Five-year-old Caeden had lost his favorite stuffed animal at the Toronto Pearson Airport. But thanks to the wonders of Twitter, a few strategic hashtags (#findmyowner), and the kind heart of police officer Sgt Chris Boddy, their reunion happened in only 24 hours.

Yup, Sgt Boddy took it upon himself to tweet about the lost pup, and was retweeted almost 300 times until the message found its way to Caeden's family.

You know, it may seem like a little thing. But sometimes the little things ARE the big things.

Have you seen Twitter being used for good lately? Tell us how in the comments!

A True American Beauty

There's something about a beauty pageant that can bring out the ugly in people.

Sadly, that is what happened on social media when the beautiful Nina Davuluri won the title of Miss America on Sunday night.

Nina, a native New Yorker, is the first Indian-American to be crowned Miss America. Throughout the pageant, Nina showed the pride she has in her heritage.  Her talent was a classic Bollywood dance and her platform was "celebrating diversity through cultural competency".  But no sooner did the crown hit her head than social media blew up with terrible and racist comments.  I am not going to even give these tweets and posts the notoriety of being quoted in this blog.  The ignorance and blatantly racist stereotypes were disgusting; people linking her to terrorist groups, calling her not "really American" and making derogatory statements about belonging in 7-11.  

I am proud of Miss America and wish Nina all the best and hope she takes the high road in dealing with these types of comments.  And I think it's about time that people stop hiding behind their computer screens and typing hateful comments about others.  We need a little more love and beauty in this world, and a LOT less vitriol spread over social media.  

Were you watching Sunday?  What were your thoughts?