Engagement and the Digital Divide
Still, I have reservations that I hope will guide us as well. “Community” emerges from relationships, real engagement between people, families, neighbors, groups of people and, when needed organizations/institutions. “Community” is in quotes and I used the verb “emerges” for a reason. I believe community is an aspiration that we, you and I, are wanting. When there is “community” the web of relationships is potent, so as to respond when there is suffering and to celebrate thriving. When the constantly shifting web of many relatively simple relationships is sufficient, the pattern, called “community,” “emerges,” it becomes evident.
As we move forward with the idea of social media and connections coming through cyber-space, let’s pay attention to the still present “digital divide. It separates people who have constant access to the web from those who do not. It perpetuates poverty and is a tangible barrier to the success of children, the securing of jobs and the participation in civic life.
Knowing the challenge posed by the digital divide means that how we (SCOPE) go about using social media to engage people may be a little different. It may change frequently to be responsive and adaptive. We aspire for it to be co-created with you. Let’s check in from time to time to see what we are learning.
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For me a big theme that keeps coming up when I consider how technology can strengthen community and help us work better together to reach goals as citizens in a community — is how important it is to never lose sight of the fundamental ingredient that makes community what it is: RELATIONSHIP.
So often we leap at a new tool or widget in hopes that it will be the key to solve some gap in efficiency, in access to information, in representing the way things are, hoping that by filling the gap, this tool will bring us light-years forward to solving the age-old question of how to create lasting, real change.*
I keep thinking of the response someone in a workshop I attended gave to the question of how technology like social media can become a tool–or a hindrance to?–strengthening community. The response was that one of the key success factors in Pres. Obama’s electoral campaign was that any online innovation ultimately directed people to meet one another face-to-face in living rooms.
I believe that for us to become engaged with each other in community in a way that will make things better in the long run, we must keep in mind that ideas and opinions are cheap–and big issues or goals in community are so complex. I think we need real relationships with one another to work through those things and come out with something good on the other end.
So, whatever tool we use to move us forward as a community together, let’s always ask how it will serve to strengthen relationships, or build relationships that will last, in some way, beyond a spurt of brainstorming or debate.
Perhaps just as important, how can it be built upon and energized by the often elegant, surprisingly efficient and powerful network of relationships that already exist in our communities? especially in those communities we label ‘poor’ (I have found can be much richer in caring, supportive relationships than those communities we label otherwise)
*For me, “lasting real change” is the product of many minds, hands, hearts grappling with issues that touch their lives; of individuals and groups taking responsibility for creating change starting with their own contributions/behavior, and engaging others in the process without exclusion. And, “lasting real change” always involves those who “need” the change as decision-makers and “doers.”