The title of this article could imply a reaction to something, or at the very least, building in place of something that’s already broken. Although our species have always strived to build and create regardless of events that transpire, we’ve also had to build and create because of certain events. Now seems like such a time. Not only do we need to build, but rather, we need to rebuild and reimagine. This process of rebuilding in the debris of a broken system is something that has become profoundly commonplace as we move into the third decade of the 2000s.
Included in our eternal building, we’ve built ecosystems that bring structure and organization to our societies. We’ve built these in a steady pace and alignment with our technology, just as our natural ecosystems adapt to changes in the broader environment. These ecosystems, by their very nature, serve us as living, moving structures that come and go and transmute where need be. Springing forth as spaces for creation, collaboration, and interaction, our human ecosystems (we’ve hoped) should also allow us the flexibility to adapt together when the system faces a crisis or disruption. This flexibility is now being tested.
During this historical moment, when our social ecosystems have been disrupted and forced to reorganize, we get a chance to see what emerges. In a highly globalized world, the dismantling of our feedback loops and well-trodden avenues of trade, by a virus, has led to a climax in uncertainty. However, if we look closer, we can see a fertile ground emerging for those who are willing and eager to build something new.
The most lauded winner for newness during all this uncertainty has been, without a doubt, our dependable ‘Virtual-the-vigilante’, courageously seeking to take up the reigns and do what our traditional structures have failed to do. Rewarded by a bull run on US tech stocks and a sudden global move into an online world, Virtual has undergone a sudden global backing, entrusted to uphold our way of life with fearless ease. Building new ecosystems in this virtual world has become the pièce de résistance of 2020.
As we search for new pathways to connection in this virtual paradigm, we need to reexamine what connection means to us in a world where our words and bodies are but shadows of our real-time existence. Without our familiar three dimensional markers, perhaps there is something innately human that we’re missing out on when we don’t bring our bodies to space. But it could be argued that connection is more than real-time transactions, connection is the need to hear and be heard. In this light, the virtual world offers so much more potential for connection than our geographically-bound bodies could ever provide. Recovering the reams of time that have been devoured by our commutes and transits, we’re potentially faced with a boundless virtual horizon for connection.
This horizon hints at a new dawn, shedding light on and reaffirming the need for connection in our lives. Connection to uplift us, connection to inspire us, and ultimately, to bring us together in our humanity.
In a strange way, we’re now given an opportunity to be far more intentional with the virtual connections we make. This requires courage and resolve, to be more authentically ourselves. The reality that everyone is proverbially ‘in the same boat’ ensures that the vast majority of potential engagement and connection is literally at our fingertips. If we so dare choose to direct our energy into building and joining virtual ecosystems of our own making, we could much easily create the change we want to see in the world.
As we project a shadow of ourselves into the virtual world, there arises ever more opportunity for us to mold that version of ourselves into what we’ve always wanted. The time for connection is now, it always has been.
By James Campbell
James is a writer and advocate for the Social Sciences, with a biophilic world view. Dreamer and hugger. Keen interest in psychedelics as a catalyst for healing. Driven by the pursuit of a safe space for all.
