Lily Cole’s Mission Impossible

I’m sure everyone has heard of Lily Cole (she’s an adorable ginger model with a doll-esque face) but it is less likely that you’ve heard of her new social network Impossible (www.impossible.com). I came across it on Twitter when she tweeted saying it had been compared to Freecycle. I love Freecycle and Freegle so my ears pricked up and I had a look at the website and it is honestly such a sweet concept.

The point of the network is to allow people to submit wishes and people can respond with gifts, whether it be advice, solutions or an offer to help, depending on what the wish is. It’s not about wishing for money or material possessions but exchanging knowledge and skills to help simple wishes. I’ve seen wishes for help walking dogs, meeting up for coffee, help translating and volunteers for projects along with others. People reply to these wishes offering knowledge, experience or the chance to meet up and help. I’ve also seen wishes that don’t have a solution, such as the wish to drop everything and go travelling. Obviously people can’t help to these but it’s refreshing to see wishes other than winning the lottery and having that new top.

I posted two wishes earlier (one wishing for a solution for my acne, and one wishing to get a job in social media when I graduate) and I’ve had some replies with suggestions I haven’t thought of myself, which shows that the concept itself works. It actually feels really nice for your wish to be listened to out of the goodness of their own heart. Let’s face it, our friends and family listen to us moan but they do it because they have to, or if not because one day they will need you to do the same. People on Impossible don’t do it with the expectation that you reply to their wish, although you can send a thank you with a personalised picture which is nice to receive.

The concept of Impossible is refreshingly different than other social networks. It restores faith that, amongst the scammers and selfish, there are kind, selfless people who really do care about others happiness.

If you want to read more about Impossible, I’d suggest going on the website and having a look through the wishes because you’ll see what I mean about it being sweet. The website itself is a bit complicated; I’m not sure how to message people! But making wishes, replying to people and thanking people is simple enough.

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