Community is much more than relationships and doing stuff together. I feel we often over emphasize the relationships angle of community, especially in relation to digital communities.
It has just as much to do with being inspired by each other’s ideas & creating our own things. We may never connect, and you may never know how your idea, conversation or contributions matter.
We can only hold so many relationships before it becomes exhausting.
Sometimes people will reach out years later to me saying how ‘x’ made a difference for them and how that one thing led them on a path or helped them feel like they belong.
The ‘x’ could be so many things:
- An event.
- An idea.
- Rejecting an idea.
- Encouraging new ideas.
- A rant.
- A shared trauma/experience.
- A question.
- Not being sold to or being used as a pawn.
- Advocating and supporting when no one else did
A successful community helps people. You don’t have to have conversations with everyone to help them. You don’t have to build (many) relationships.
And of course, I’m not saying relationships don’t matter. There should be a balance and an understanding that other things matter too.
