Building Community

  • unsocial media

    In theory, social media is an amazing idea. Tens of thousands of interconnected people sharing, creating, reacting, conversing and communicating in one space.

    In reality, the costs to run this technology has led to every single social media platform of scale ever created with any broad success turning into a hungry beast that needs to be fueled by advertising and any number of other algrorithmic pressures that erode at the effectiveness of the social aspect.

    I have advocated professionally and personally for many years for people (and businesses) to keep a toe in each of the two pools: one each in social media platforms and private content platforms. That is to say, the wisest among us know that relying exclusively on social platforms means your content is only as valuable as someone else’s company bottom line. And alternatively, leaning one hundred percent into a private platform like a blog or other website orphans your connectiveness to the wider internet community to the hours per day you are willing or able to promote it and help people find you.

    Both have their advantages and disadvantages. So be smart and dabble in both. Have strategies for using both. Don’t rely exclusively on either alone.

    Personally, I have leaned more heavily into building content on my own platform and then working to promote it on social media. It does make me a tad unsocial, but also the risks of losing control, access, or moral standing of that content for participation on one of the big social networks is lessened. And at the end of the day, I have retained full control over the vast amounts of content I have created through the years while still having it read and used by many.


  • followering

    Social networks come and social networks go.

    When change happens, people look for ways to build or rebuild connection with others. In 2023, that seems to mean creating an account on a new platform and seeking followers.

    Some people are clever at this, and say a couple controversial, dramatic or interesting things that get them noticed and suddenly they have many followers who hope they will routinely say controversial, dramatic or interesting things, and thus become performers for them.

    Other people say normal, human things and have conversations, one on one, inch by inch, real words by real words, and find new people to connect with and follow back in return, thus becoming a kind of friend for which our languages haven’t quite invented a better word for than “follower.”

    I sometimes say controversial, dramatic or interesting things, but for the most part I have found myself in the camp of posting normal, human things and having conversations.

    And that is okay, because social networks come and social networks go, and followers are largely and inevitably temporary connections with the universe.


  • succession

    First we learn.

    Then we do.

    Then we teach others.

    In all good communities of people who have skills, talents, or understanding, there is an order to the succession of that community.

    Beginners enter the community and are excited to learn and grow and get better. Mastery is a long, slow process of doing and practicing and ever-improving. And eventually those who reach a state of skillfulness — while not forced to become mentors and instructors in their craft — are met with the choice of challenge of giving back to their communities by teaching and supporting the beginners and everyone as a means to keeping the craft alive and strong.

    For those who believe in the sustainability of what they practice, that choice is an obvious one, maybe even a moral imperative.

    Some days I find myself as a beginner learning new skills in new crafts from the thousands who have gone down the path before me.

    Some days I just do.

    And some days I pause to lead and advise and offer support in the things of which I seem to have gathered decades of experience and can nurture those twenty years behind me.

    What is your day’s work? Learning, doing, or teaching?