10 thoughts on kindness porn

So much of what you see online is either negative or related to envy, showing off, and narcissism. These videos give you little glimpses of human kindness and therefore make you release oxytocin, which contributes to happiness.

"Witnessing acts of kindness produces oxytocin, occasionally referred to as the 'love hormone' which aids in lowering blood pressure and improving our overall heart-health. Oxytocin also increases our self-esteem and optimism, which is extra helpful when we're in anxious or shy in a social situation."

Sometimes it can feel as if the person is showing off how much of a good person they are

At the end of the day, someone is being kind to a stranger, and they're boosting your mood by showing it to you. Everyone in the video (I assume) gave their consent to be showed to the world. It's all good.

There's, again, a bit of a weird feeling sometimes when the person in the video just randomly gives $500 to someone. Maybe because money feels impersonal? I don't know. It's awesome that they do this though, I certainly have no problem with it.

I assume someone like @mdmotivator does this as his full-time job. I know he accept donations which go directly to the strangers, but I assume that he also monetizes his content in some ways. Making a living being kind sounds like a pretty sweet gig.

It can be very moving.

So many of the strangers in the videos are so, so sweet. In the ways they thank the person, in what they say, or in deciding to give some or all of the money away to other strangers.

In one of his videos, @mdmotivator pretended he didn't have enough money to pay the check while on a date and asked a waiter if he could help him reduce the bill, and he was soooooooo sweet about it, it was amazing.

@mdmotivator usually asks the stranger if they have anything they'd like to share with the world, and they often have something wise to say about kindness and love. It's sweet.

I uninstall and reinstall Instagram on and off. I can't remember why I downloaded it again, normally if I need it I just use it on desktop. Now I might keep it on my phone to make it easier to reach out to potential clients. The problem is that I sometimes end up scrolling (rarely, thankfully). This makes me occasionally stumble upon videos from @mdmotivator or others, and I don't think these videos fry your brain like most content does. It's the bright side of social media.

What if this actually makes us less likely to perform random acts of kindness? I just thought of this. Maybe it makes us more likely to be kind, but maybe it's the opposite. Could it be? Is there any science on this? I wonder. Could it be that kindness porn tricks your brain into thinking you're being kind, just like porn porn tricks your brain into thinking you're having sex? And if porn makes people have less sex, does kindness porn make people perform fewer acts of kindness? What a weird think to think out loud publicly.