By Tara Suess, Umoja CCO

Of countless lessons accumulated through the age of the internet, most striking could be this duality: the heightened connectivity with and detachment from our fellow humans.

You may have heard the cries, "We're more connected than ever, yet we’ve never been more alone!” This might be due to charting the unknown territory known as the globalization of society.

Through rapid tech advancements (namely the internet, smartphones, and even web3) we’ve spent the past couple of decades watching the barriers that had forever divided us simply melt away. But can such a massive change in the collective psyche ever take easy?

Needing to individually adjust to global connectivity and integrate it into our daily lives is bound to pose unique cognitive challenges.

These could look like, for instance, the mental health repercussions of shifting priorities to internet communities over local friends and family. In this example, decreased physical contact with other humans can increase levels of loneliness and anxiety.

Even with so much connectivity, it doesn't assume intimacy with global concerns. Other cognitive challenges can arise from increased awareness.

For instance, in the face of worldwide injustices and tragedies, it may feel safer and easier to retreat to familiar corners of the web that mirror our frequent environments (e.g. using social media to keep tabs on local news and football.) Instead of being tasked with processing the world’s daily problems, our minds can "save space" and focus on the issues we feel equipped to resolve.

Of course, we can’t escape from the barrage of daily media updates across the various regular outlets, but we can learn how to tune it out. And we are seemingly better than ever at looking the other way — just take a ride on the New York City subway and watch a homeless person solicit money from benches of stone-faced riders.

So, we’ve essentially developed an ability for compartmentalization. Was this skill available for our ancestors? This opining writer is no anthropologist, but I have to imagine that in our pre-industrial days, compartmentalization could prove deadly.

On the other hand, the Umoja Foundation team has been no stranger to the manifestational power of following one's dreams. This requires concentrated attention, shifting focus from the hardships of obstacles to the emerging solutions. Could compartmentalization, in a way, be both a cause of and remedy to our modern problems?

As we adapt to our increasingly global society, it’s only human to feel powerless and desensitized in the face of challenges outside our familiarity or imagined impact. Umoja’s mission is to offer a solution — because building a better world shouldn’t be a bittersweet pill to swallow.

We aim to remove the points of friction that prevent us from resolving the issues we consider out of reach. Not only do we want charity to feel effortless, but we want it to be rewarding and fun. This way, we can keep our sights fixed on a better world while actively taking steps to create it.

So why charity NFTs?

Art is the connective tissue that can unite us all, and web3 is the technology that can facilitate the globalization of art. And, thanks to the power of generative art developments, we can efficiently bring the artistic visions of the very people our project supports to life, for a genuine human touch — even across oceans.

While Umoja strives to cater to both web2 and web3 audiences by offering a phygital product set (canvas prints and NFTs), blockchain technology is fundamental to our endeavors. The benefits of web3-based charity are numerous, including:

• Transparency. Transactions on the blockchain are publicly accessible and recorded in perpetuity, so nothing is obscured.

• Accountability, built-in and reinforced by blockchain’s immutable nature.

• Passive revenue. What’s better than a one-time donation? A charitable investment that keeps giving through resale royalties (whenever you decide to sell.)

• Authentic ownership. The record of your contribution is undisputed, living permanently on the blockchain.

• Visible impact. Our charity NFTs are tokens of humanitarian kindness, representing the unique artistic visions of the people our proceeds support.

• Limitless potential, thanks to ongoing decentralized tech development that can continue to break new ground and improve global society.

Although we (probably) weren't born equipped to keep up with the rapid evolution of the internet age and its unique set of challenges, advancements in web3 have undoubtedly introduced the necessary tools to produce meaningful global change.

Now, it’s only a matter of setting our sights on the society we want to see. Umoja imagines that art and technology can intersect to pave the way to a more equitable and bountiful world for all — and that vision is fixed.