I'm sort of intrigued at your belief in the existence of "social action" that somehow manifests without any individual doing "anything" to "help". As if it is some sort of ontological force that exists independent of the individuals participating in it?
I incorrectly worded my post. And placed too much focus on the individual, when I was as attempting to stress the individual AS A software developer.
But nonetheless I do agree with the final output.
An individual is largely incapable of doing anything ALONE. Only thought organized and mass action are things accomplished on societal scale.
Change requires work... this is physics. A large change requires a lot of work. If your force is too small (an individual). You may never over come friction.
Organizations are made of people. People in organizations do things, and the sum of those things create change. Some of those things need technology, or could be done much better if technology was applied to them. OP is looking for such people and organizations in which he could help by doing the things that require or benefit from technology.
I tend to agree with you, but somehow seeing someone else say what I feel made me realize that this is the wrong way to think about the issue. Individuals can do exactly what they can do, and it isn't nothing.
The flaw in this way of thinking is hidden in your assumption about what counts as "doing something." You talk as if the only thing that counts as doing something is what you call "change", which means "changing the way that other people (people with more resources than you) act". It's true that engaging in political action to change the way that other people act is an effective and important part of doing good. The government and large corporations control most of the "surplus" resources in the world and it's foolish to pretend otherwise.
But to approach the problem of "doing good" with the mindset of "the only thing that I can do is to ask other people to make the world a better place" is selling yourself short and in my opinion an anti-democratic way of thinking.
Individuals can do exactly what they can do. You can volunteer at a school, you can start a community garden, you can help just one person in your life who needs it. This counts as doing good, and without the kind of community that forms from lots of people spending their time with others, you have to ask yourself why you should care about the political action at all. Far too much political action today is done out of self-righteousness or anger, rather than out of love. If you've forgotten how to love a stranger in your private life, you may have forgotten how to do it in your public (political) life too.
