“The Internet is a Developing Country” - “Jump In The Doc” Edition!
This week's newsletter is a collaborative experiment, thanks to the weird and extra supportive ideation in my writing group. I love you guys.
Hi friends! This week, in a moment of fitful angst about what kind of newsletter I’m designing, I agreed with some online friends in a writing group to run an experiment.
Can I write to my newsletter with a question, not an essay? (That’s absurd!)
Can I write to see if other people will create the newsletter? (That’s absurd!)
Can I send out an email with a Google Doc, and… maybe my people will jump in and contribute whatever they’re thinking? (Absurd!)
It instantly sounded like nonsense, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so here we are running the experiment, in a new newsletter format I’m calling “Jump in the Doc.”
TODAY’S COLLABORATIVE GOOGLE DOC IS ABOUT THE INTERNET.
Today’s hot topic -- I think these will always probably be spicy or stimulating prompts that may not make any sense?!? -- “The Internet is a Developing Country.” This is a thought I had Monday that… I’m not sure holds water. The premise is, if we view the internet not as a “thing” but as a landbase, does that change or add some intentionality to our interactions there? Can it be a source of longevity, joyful interactiveness, or new meaning?
If the internet is a developing country, I want to know what we can we learn from our friends and colleagues who’ve grown up in and shaped their developing communities offline. I want to know what “developed country” crowds can learn and address in our offline realities from this thought experiment, given the fluctuations we see in educational outcomes, lifespans, income equality, environmental thriving, working conditions, and financial security in our economies these days.
If “the internet is a developing country,” what roles are we playing? Are we missionaries or colonists? Fisherfolk or gardeners? Matriarchs or militia?
Today…. I hereby unleash you on this experimental Google Doc, where I invite you to
Read the totally random questions I created
Interact with the questions & bullet points however you’d like
Add roles or ideas you have relating to this topic
Share your experience of participating in this experiment, just by receiving it.
The only rules so far are no griefing, err on the side of honesty, divergence is welcome, and have a good time! You can add your name or not; Google Docs will give us a versioning history, and feel free to add links/images/whatever or to do weird stuff below the questions.
Thanks to everyone for being my online community at this early stage and being game for this absolutely random online experiment.
Last link is right here — let’s see what we learn… and best of all, thanks to my writing crew for helping me tackle this week’s edition of newsletter writing angstcitementy :).
Have a great weekend,
Megan