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I’ve been a part of all kinds of networks over the past 6-7 years. Business related, large friend groups, creative hubs and online Facebook groups. All of them have had impact on shaping me into who I am and have created opportunities for me that I otherwise wouldn’t have had.
They’ve also made me realise that there’s immense power in being part of a community, for a number of reasons. For growth, comfort as well as challenge and inspiration.
I think access to communities and networks is going to get harder in the future. People are going to protect their closest communities and we’re going to value small, exclusive groups rather than big networks with loose bonds between one another.
Hence, those of us that seek community need to act. Act by creating, participating and nurturing the networks we want today in order to have them in 10 years.
What networks and communities do you want to have in your life?
→ Access to people
Theoretically, all of us have access to everyone who’s connected to the internet. That’s an immense power in itself. But there are a couple of caveats.
These things boil down to a couple of things. First off, I see a trend in people becoming more reclusive. They want to connect with their closest friends and family even when they’re online. They’re simply not interested in connecting genuinely with new people.
Secondly, the people who have a big following online don’t often engage with their fans or followers. I very rarely see celebrities replying to comments on Instagram or engaging a lot with their followers on Twitter. Hence, you don’t really have access to them, since the platforms are being used as broadcasters rather than platforms to interact.
→ Adapting to interaction on the internet
We’re not born with smartphones in our hands. We learn to live with them. And adaptation of new tools take generations when they’re of this magnitude.
The point of the internet is interaction. It wasn’t made for us to keep up with the Kardashians or read newspapers where we still can’t ask questions to the journalists. We’ve yet to adapt to the fact that we can talk like human beings to one another on the net.
The same goes for building trustful networks and communities. We’re simply not adapted to it yet. Some try, but as a species this is something we’re going to have to work on for the coming 300-500 years (just guessing with the number, but I think it’s going to take that long until we’ve figured it out somewhat and brought most people up to speed).
→ What you can do