The Importance of IRL
To be incredibly too predictable, I, the recovering community outreach officer turned brand manager, can’t help but bring us back to the importance of community—of creating a space to bring people together, in real life, for one-on-one conversations.
I’ve been reading Gloria Steinem’s book My Life on the Road—and while I find myself earmarking and highlighting every page, coming back to passages again and again, there is one that speaks so loudly to the work we do at Black Sheep.
As rebels and advocates. As connectors that put in the elbow grease to rally people behind causes and people doing meaningful work. As creatives that spend hours on the internet—finding new ways to bring our clients’ stories to life online. We are always looking to find the best avenues to activate communities around a cause.
We love the internet as much as the next guy and we believe in the power of online communities, but when it comes down to it, nothing can replace the power of shared connection, when two strangers (or hundreds) come together to learn, grow and hold a dialogue.
It’s during those moments that Gloria writes, “You’ll be rewarded in the way that we as communal beings need most: you’ll know you made a difference.”
From My Life on the Road:
“If there is one thing that these campus visits have affirmed for me, it’s that the miraculous but impersonal internet is not enough. As in the abolitionist and suffragist era, when there were only six hundred or so colleges with a hundred students each—and itinerant organizers like the Grimke sisters, Frederick Douglas, and Sojourner Truth traveled to speak in town halls, granges, churches and campgrounds—nothing can replace being in the same space. That’s exactly why we need to keep creating the temporary world of meetings, small and large, on campuses and everywhere else. In them, we discover we’re not alone, we learn from one another, and so we keep going toward shared goals… I recommend trying this kind of grassroots organizing for a week or a year, or a month or a lifetime—working for whatever change you want to see in the world. Then one day you will be talking to a stranger who has no idea you played any part in the victory she or he is celebrating.”
As we are moving down our paths to change the world and build badass digital strategies—let us remember that, especially when it comes to cause-driven work. The in-person communities we create are a crucial piece of the puzzle.