Much of progressives’ criticism of Hillbilly Elegy had to do with the movie’s failure to wrestle with the story or the c

The anonymous Twitter user @guatemamii may have articulated the philosophy best in an August tweet that racked up more than 18,000 likes and 5,000 shares: Donating to individual Cash Apps and Venmos, she wrote, “will go further than donating to a non-profit.”,Don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to convince anyone to watch this film. God knows, there’s already too much out there to watch. (As soon as I hit “publish” on this post I’ll be off to watch the last episode of HBO’s The Undoing, though that series leaves plenty to be desired in its own right. ) All I’m asking is that people please stop comparing it to films like Winter’s Bone and Frozen River — and not because neither of those films take place in Appalachia. Making such comparisons is like comparing a network television drama to a premium cable drama. It’s just not fair and, honestly, there’s no point.,Hollywood has coughed up far, far, far worse films than Hillbilly Elegy. (Some of them have even won Academy Awards; I’m looking at you, Crash.) It’s just that Twitter didn’t bother to complain about them so no one noticed. Meanwhile, everyone survived the trauma of those movies’ terribleness. That’s because a mediocre work of art never killed anyone. What ruins us all is when we spend more time reacting to art than taking it in.,Despite that white-gloved lineage, Jake — who voted for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, and still struggles to explain the wealth he inherited — does not exude Carnegie or Rockefeller vibes. In conversation, the freelance film technician is boisterous and self-deprecating and very, very earnest, prone to incidental overshares and meandering asides. On Twitter, he posts about movies, indie rock, social justice, and the guilt of growing up in a family rich enough to rent the occasional private plane.,So in early spring, Jake embarked on a charity spree of his own. He sent a few laid-off buddies money to help cover their rent. He donated to a series of small bail funds. Then — scrolling through Twitter one afternoon in May, inundated by racial wealth gap statistics and “high out of his mind” on Xanax — Jake hatched another, more unusual idea: He promised to Venmo or Cash App funds directly to anyone in need who tweeted at him.,Over the next couple hours, and then less frantically for several weeks after, Jake says he sent $200 and $300 deposits to dozens of strangers from North Carolina to Ohio, California to London. He only stopped, he said, when friends called and urged him to get off Twitter, concerned that some of his new followers might take advantage of him. OneZero confirmed that over the course of several days, Jake sent more than $5,400 in direct payments.,Jake, who asked OneZero to protect his last name, shares his surname with a major college that renamed itself in honor of his late grandmother. His grandfather, the millionaire founder of a family-run tax software firm, cut $2,500 checks each Christmas to the charities each grandchild selected. Growing up, Jake watched his parents primp for charity galas and endow scholarships. They would casually pick up the tuition of kids they met on their international vacations. For a period in his childhood, Jake’s parents even operated their own children’s health nonprofit.,It’s impossible to say how much money Americans now give through direct digital donations such as these. Based on data that comes in part from Giving USA, Lucy Bernholz, the director of the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford University, estimates that informal online giving now totals in the billions of dollars — surging to new heights this year, even as formal 501(c)3s fought to keep their doors open.,Raised in a six-bedroom mansion in Philadelphia’s outer exurbs — the kind with a grand circular driveway, tucked 100 yards from the street — 25-year-old Jake learned from an early age that wealthy families like his had a moral obligation to give back through charity.,Hollywood has coughed up far, far, far worse films than Hillbilly Elegy. (Some of them have even won Academy Awards; I’m looking at you, Crash.) It’s just that Twitter didn’t bother to complain about them so no one noticed. Meanwhile, everyone survived the trauma of those movies’ terribleness. That’s because a mediocre work of art never killed anyone. What ruins us all is when we spend more time reacting to art than taking it in.,Over the past decade or so, as physical releases and the need for radio play has declined, so has the need to produce edited versions of albums. Walmart doesn’t even sell CDs anymore. Some of it is the logistics of distributing music in the digital age: Albums are now being finalized at the 11th hour and sent directly to streaming services. Gone are the days of long marketing plans and albums being ready months before their release date, giving artists and labels the time to engineer an entire edited album. Music videos on TV are a thing of the past. Cassette singles are relics. There are a few major label exceptions like Kendrick Lamar; Jay-Z has edited versions of all of his albums available and, as a result, is a staple in our house. But he’s a rarity.,The phenomenon encompasses a range of distinct practices, from formalized mutual aid networks and so-called “reparations” payments to ad hoc appeals for the internet’s help. Curated threads compiling the names and Venmo handles of people who lost work, got sick, survived a natural disaster, or otherwise needed aid this year have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. “Give people, lots of people, cash,” the journalist Yashar Ali wrote in a March tweet storm that more than 14,000 people retweeted.,As the Covid-19 pandemic deepened this spring, so too did Jake’s shame. “Being unwoke and rich seems great, but I’m rich and aware of other humans so I wanna die,” he tweeted.,“Technology is enabling this really interesting, full-circle shift back to very old modes of giving,” said Rhodri Davies, the head of policy for the U.K.-based Charities Aid Foundation, which promotes charitable donations. “It’s very much about interpersonal connection, rather than an intermediating organization.”,While Jake’s online giving spree may have looked extreme, even reckless, both his methods and motivations are increasingly common. The coronavirus pandemic has mainstreamed a once-radical form of charity — or solidarity, depending on your politics and vantage point — in which strangers use peer-to-peer payment apps to give money directly, and instantly, to each other.