3 min read
Over the past few months, and even before that during my morning commutes, I have often found my mind making comparisons and taking perspective on the world around me. This is one such thought.
Up until now, I have had the opportunity to see the world from a variety of different perspectives, be it from living through them myself, or observing them from afar, watching the highlights of antics wrought by my fellow human on the TV. Something I've found to be a common factor in all of these perspectives is that of differing techniques of social interaction and their correlation with the backgrounds of the participants.
Someone from a seaside town or country village might be more prone to seeking community in their every day life, or pursuing a sense of solitude, a way to step back from society and take a breather. More and more, I've seen people doing this same thing on various social media platforms online.
As technology has become more and more integral in our everyday lives, so too has our societal structure begun to gravitate around and towards it. When I was a kid, your reputation on the playground was measured in technical ability at sports, a winning streak in the hottest card game, an enviable selection of Pokémon back when having a complete Pokédex was an achievable goal that you would pursue with your classmates in the three or four months it was popular. Nowadays, it would appear that social media presence is the currency of the day, and not only in the youngest generation, but in the generations like mine who didn't grow up accustomed to such structures.
As a result, I've found myself observing similarities between the old and the new, the material and the virtual. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have become the congregation point for many, a place where you can show yourself living your best life, and sometimes even growing a community around your interesting exploits. These places tend to be quite busy, boast incredibly impressive user-bases and have become household names in their own right. It wouldn't sound out of place to say that 'Anyone who's anyone are on these apps'. These are what I like to think of as the Capital Cities of the internet, as their overall vibe and community/societal structure mirror (at least my perspective) of any of the big cities in our world. Here in the UK, London is the bustling hub of activity for the entire country and is known worldwide as one of the capital cities of the world. Even where I come from, if you want to build a career in Ireland, it's almost unavoidable to find yourself spending a significant amount of time in Dublin.
Compare this to the smaller communities of sleepy boroughs and close-knit towns in any corner of the world. The community built there is small but steadfast, much like how there are corners of the internet that are less well known by the masses, but still have thriving communities who have their own local celebrities, people who are well known for one reason or another and are generally toted by many as reliable/good people.
This is all to say that I find it infinitely interesting how more and more each day, the socialscape of the Internet and the socialscape of the World are beginning to merge and blur. Isn't that a cool but scary thought?
TLDR; I think of big social media websites as kind of being the Cities of the internet, and less well-known community spaces to be the surrounding towns and villages of those cities.