I love people who give me a little bit of my faith back in humanity. Those people who will go with me to volunteer, or help out whenever they can. Those people who don't need the whole world to scream their praises at them.

Today, I saw a video of a teenager giving shoes to one of his classmates. The day before, he had overheard the student on the phone with her mother complaining that she needed new shoes while poking at the holes in the bottom of her shoes. Her mother apparently said that she did not have the money to replace the Vans that the girl was wearing, but that she would take her to Walmart and get the girl a new pair of shoes. The other student then decided to go to Vans that afternoon and buy the girl a new pair of shoes. The next day, in front of the entire class, making sure that a friend was recording the good deed, he presented the new shoes to his fellow student.

Let's start with the good of the situation. The girl got new shoes. That's great. The guy feels like he did something good. Good.

But let's look at some of the consequences that he may not have originally intended. The girl could possibly have been horribly embarrassed. In front of her entire class, it was made evident that her family could not afford to get her any new shoes. In a time that could be very difficult for her and her family, like having to admit that she needed new shoes, it could only be made worse by being set apart from her fellow students that she is too poor.

Now here's how the situation should have gone. The guy sees that the girl is in need of new shoes. The guy could still go out and buy her new shoes, but give them to the teacher instead. The teacher could then give them to the girl with the sensitivity that teachers are trained to have. That would avoid all of the embarrassment the girl faced in front of her classmates.

He could have given the shoes to the girl after class without calling her out in front of the rest of the class. He could have not taped it and put it on the internet, exponentially exposing the girl to more people. The same goes for donating to homeless people. Save them some dignity and keep it off the internet.

Doing a good deed is supposed to be helpful to someone else. As a side effect, it might make you feel good. But if you're doing it so that you can go viral on social media, use it as evidence that you're a good person, or to show off, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. Helping someone for self-glorification is not helping anyone. In fact, it may hurt some people in the process of boosting your street cred. So keep that in mind the next time you're planning to do something nice for someone. Ask yourself why you're really doing it.