Facilitating Community Connection

My hatred of social media, why marketing feels ick, and finding the work I'm called to do.

Meta has changed a number of its policies, including axing its diversity, equity, and inclusion targets, Zuckerberg claiming that the company needs more “masculine energy” on Joe Rogan, and now has implemented a change in the terms of use policy that allows users to call gay and trans folk mentally ill. This comes after they decided to stop fact-checking.

If there has ever been a call to leave social media platforms, now seems to be that time, especially after watching the tech oligarchs lined up in a row at the presidential inauguration last week. I wish not to support the information economy that gives bad people too much power.

Alas, social media has a very practical use, and that use is connecting people. Before the primary goal of social media was to be profitable, and maybe still despite it being profitable, it was designed to help people connect online, create independent media easily, sharing information and insight far and wide. It’s still very good at this in a way that hasn’t really been replicable off the networks like Twitter (I refuse to call it X), Facebook, and Instagram.

Even messaging apps like WhatsApp are owned by Meta, and there seems to be an ever-growing fear that information shared on those apps may be used against us in a political fascist state. I highly recommend Bluesky and Signal if you’re looking for alternatives, but sometimes posting ANYTHING on the internet feels scary when we have AI scraping data left, right, and centre.

While watching all of this happening, I’m also in the throes of looking for paid work. It seems a decade of self-employment has rendered me somewhat unemployable. So, as one does, I turn back to freelancing. But I felt a bit gross putting my messaging together for a website promoting my services.

“With a background in UX, web development, and design thinking, I make sure everything from your website to your online strategy fits together and works for you.” *jazz hands* *stars and glitter*

I have never liked marketing or sales—big surprise, I’m sure. But I have worked in non-profit communications for around 15 years. Trying to distinguish the work that I am good at from the work that the industry wants me to be good at is hard. I have the technical aptitude to put out messaging on multiple channels: newsletters, social media, event coordination, etc. But my distaste for capitalist economics, coupled with my newfound hatred for social media, has left me in a space where I’m wondering what the fuck I’m even looking for in a job and what I’m even qualified to do anymore.

I have been dreaming of third spaces, of bringing people together, and of supporting other people who are community connectors. Yes, this falls into “communications” but doesn’t feel like marketing.

And then I was driving the other day and had this epiphany: communications not as in selling shit, communications as in helping people find each other. Communications, as in enabling the flow of information from one space to another.

And then everything kind of fell into place. All my personal projects line up very nicely under this understanding of communications. And I feel not only called to do this work, but I feel that I’m really quite good at it.

So here I am, entering into a new understanding of the work that I would like to be doing in the world, paid or otherwise (but paid would be really helpful right now). I’ve got a few clients who already understood that this was what I am good at, and I’m so happy that they get me. I’m looking for one or two more clients to help with the paid work side of things, and I’m letting myself explore personal projects that share this goal of community connection, especially connection happening in IRL rather than online.

For now, social media is still a necessary evil to facilitating connection. The good, sadly, still outweighs the bad. The ability to find each other has never been easier, but I’m also much more cognizant of how much time and energy I’m willing to spend to line the pockets of the elite. I am committed to continuing to find ways of replacing my reliance on the big business of information technology and replacing it with real and meaningful connection.

And if you’re looking for someone to help you find your people or help your people find you, shoot me a message at kel@kelsmith.ca. I do, in fact, have a strong background in UX, web development, and design thinking that gives me the technical ability to get your project off the ground efficiently, which is cool, but the passion I put into my work is probably a better selling point. ;)

(That’s the end of the sales pitch, folks. Thanks for hanging in there with me.)