I’m surrounded by people who care more about Charlie Kirk than about Gaza, sometimes it’s hard not to believe that most people are drones or just horrendous people. I can’t even watch a video my colleague sent me on AI because it’s so western centric and anti-China and I can’t get past that to have a conversation about the other stuff. It’s so isolating and disconnecting.
How did you find your way into these chats?
they’re just people i know IRL that, post-deletion of my social media accounts, i made the effort to stay in touch with and establish some avenue of communication. some i met in school, other places i worked, or through other people i knew. we’re scattered mostly now across the country, so some i see IRL rarely.
also, now that i’m not on social media to update people, when i made a big move across country, i made it a point after i got a little settled, to email a bunch of people individually to update them on my situation in a personalized communication and see what’s new with them. maybe like another 10 people outside of my typical chat groups. i dunno what i expected, i just felt compelled to tell people i made a big change and how to reach me. i was surprised that i had long responses from everyone, giving me the low down on their last year or so, and a digest of all the gossip, support/reflections on my changes, and lots of positivity for reaching out and checking in.
lately, i think we tend to over value social media as a communication tool. people have been keeping up lasting relationships and distant friendships with correspondence since literacy became a thing. scrolling feeds of highlights interspersed with ads is such a bunk way to check in with people, because it feels like it’s just different types of brand management jockeying for attention and compulsive react emojis for the dopamine and dollars of engagement. neither of which facilitate actual connections.
I like that idea of just reaching out to a bunch of people that I haven’t seen in forever individually. I should try that.
You’re talking about with the work people?
Well, all of them. I guess it’s just weird for me to reach out to a bunch of work people and add them to a group chat, especially if they’re topic specific. I’ve heard of other people who had that happen, I’m just kind of just curious about how that evolves.
Unfortunately I dont want to talk about my work life in detail, but to summarize, I have intentionally spent years developing a team culture that has a “core membership” of about a third of our team. I’ve taken lucky opportunities and created my own opportunities to develop it further (such as being involved in hiring new team members when possible). It helps that most of us like our job more than a typical job, so when we hire, I am looking for people who are gonna fit in to actually wanting to be here. it also helps that the job is attractive to “progressive” people. I’ll also mention it’s an office job.
It takes time and intentionality, but I do believe that as socialists it is necessary to be leaders of our workplaces and communities. Being vocal, not being annoying (tough balance), being competent, and having a job you don’t actively hate (tough under capitalism) all lay the foundation to being a good coworker who will naturally be seen as a leader.
I have a similar thing going on and it’s mostly Signal groups set up in connected activist spaces.