dylanmad wrote:I was a bit of an addict while I could afford it. There was a time in my life where I hadn't yet moved out away from my parents, job prospects sucked, and I felt such low self esteem. I first went on a huge Kiva kick and then really binged on Kickstarters, because I wanted to help people who actually had the wherewithal to go for it, whereas I saw myself as failing and very scared to try. I'm in a different and better place mentally today and I'm finally pursuing my dream, but on the flipside can scarcely afford to back anything anymore and just hope some of that banked Kickstarter karma comes through for me. And yet, I could be described as a do-gooder. Are the two terms mutually exclusive?
Nope. They aren't mutually exclusive.
This is the way that I look at it. For most people, money is limited. There are other avenues that one can be useful to crowdfunding campaigns, aside from pledging. Me? I pledge in small amounts. The most that I have pledged toward a project, thus far, has been $22. Even that pledge started out as a single dollar pledge, but I utilized that project's campaign as an experiment, of sorts, to see if I could make an impact on it - and at various points during the campaign cycle, I would increase my pledge, often to nudge it past various points that I viewed to be psychological barriers.
The thing about Kickstarter backers being either do-gooders or addicts is an either/or proposition, which really amounts to little more than stereotyping. There are so many things that aren't taken into account.
For example, even just being a backer of projects can be a learning experience. There's tons of stuff that one can learn, simply from being a backer.
It's also a way to "meet" other people, or to be introduced to new ideas.
Personally, I find browsing Kickstarter to be a good form of entertainment. In fact, I enjoy browsing projects more than I enjoy watching television - not because it is addicting, but because it is interesting. There's an interactive component to it, or at least, the potential to interact, or even to participate, is there.
I back projects, at times, that I honestly feel have no hope of succeeding. Something tends to connect with me on some level, or I might just be conducting an unannounced experiment of some kind, simply because I want to see what the outcome will be.
One thing about Kickstarter projects, to me, is that, if you can grasp how to crowd fund successfully, you will have a better grasp of people, generally. You gain insight into how people think, how they act, and how they react. Granted, it's not something that grants you a monopoly upon understanding people, nor some kind of Holy Grail in human relations, but it is one way to hone one or more sub-sets of people skills.
But, then again, a million different people can have a million different reasons why they back projects. Why I do it may vary widely from why anyone else backs projects, and vice versa.