You’ve probably heard the saying, “Not in my backyard!” It’s an interesting statement. To me, it is meant to indicate that various problems the world experiences won’t be present in your general sphere of living. There shouldn’t be anyone starving in your proverbial backyard. There are no homeless in your backyard. Nobody is sick without ways to get better. Not in your backyard.
A lot of people feel quite fervently about taking care of their own first, then expanding out as people around them become more secure. Take care of the homeless in your neighborhood first, then maybe worry about the whole city, and then maybe, just maybe, take it to a national level. International problems may draw compassion, but priorities remain domestic in nature.
Here’s the thing, though. The online world – this whole “social media” thing I’ve been talking about here on ye olde blog – it has changed the way I look at my world. I talk to people almost every day who are from Canada (various parts), Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Malaysia, Australia, England, Scotland, and many other places too. These people have faces, voices, families, and friends that I know and recognize. If something happened in their city or in their country, I would feel as obligated to help them as I would to help my next-door neighbor. My backyard, my neighborhood, has become expansive.
This represents the framework for the #tweetdiner chat that will happen this week. We are trying a new day – Thursday, but the same time (9 PM EST). We’ll talk about what “backyard” means in this day and age and what the advantages and disadvantages of that kind of “local first” thinking are when it comes to social good in the online world.
Just search for the #tweetdiner hashtag on Twitter and jump in. I’m looking forward to the conversation and I hope you are too 🙂
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15216811@N06/5619617675/ via Creative Commons
Very appropriate! Our friend @997dave starts living in a semitrailer on Thursday, Dec. 1st to raise food for the #Campbellriver food bank. Living in Arizona, have observed other countries issues impact.
@dabarlow@997dave that’s awesome!
Margie, I love this post. Globalization in the light of social media fascinates me. The few phone conversations I’ve had with people I’ve met on Twitter still boggle my mind. It’s hard sometimes to realize that the people behind the screen are real people. The web is no longer a place of fake identities and avatars. Social media has made digital friends real friends. Local has indeed been redefined. Twitter IS my backyard.
@dougricesmbiz So well said, Doug. I think it’s fascinating too, and often overlooked. We’re all talking to each other every day in real time, and for free. Pretty sci-fi, non? 🙂
What happened to Malaysia! 🙁 But yes, it is very interesting to see how communication has evolved on the Internet itself. From IRC, ICQ, MSN and then it just exploded. It is to the extend where we feel so connected even when we’ve never met each other before! I remember meeting Twylah’s designer for the very first time at a conference and we just clicked – thanks to Twitter.
p.s. you’re changing the time of #tweetdiner? 🙁
Margie,
You NEVER fail to get me all pumped up!!
You are so right, so very right, in so many ways. We have so much opportunity to do such good, for so many and in return, for ourselves.
I am really- really going to try to come to the “diner” on Thursday, I have yet to make it and with all the troubles I have been having with being online, I cannot promise, but I will try!
I’ve missed you and I am so happy you are writing (and not abandoning all of us!) and saying the tough stuff. We need to hear it over and over again, I think, for it to become a real thought AND action we all live.
~Amber-Lee