Social media and social movements: There’s a whole world out there!

It’s 1am and there is a stranger asleep on my sofa, rucksack at his side, snoring gently.

Six hours earlier I’d been standing in Manchester bus station, scanning the crowd for a face I’d only seen in a few blurred photographs.

Until now, Ashley Drew and I hadn’t even spoken on the phone. All I knew from our brief and infrequent emails is that he’s 28 and from Melbourne, he likes animals and snooker, and the location of my sofa is rather appealing.

Ashley is a couchsurfer, one of over a million members worldwide. The idea is simple: rather than jostling for expensive hotel rooms with other tourists, the couchsurfing movement gives backpackers the opportunity to crash on sofas for free, with the added bonus of tasting real cultures and experiencing places other sightseers probably wouldn’t. As for the hosts, they receive the simple pleasure of helping somebody out.

Couchsurfing is just one example of the emerging social trends to sweep the globe in recent years.