shifting community engagement
online participation in an age of apathy
This is essay 4 of 7 essays for The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge. Join the conversation in the build_ Discord.
The last decade saw a shift away from the communities that developed in the boomer post-war era. From the proliferation of open office spaces that decrease in-person interactions by 70% to the 50% decline in trade unions and declining political engagement, there has been a declining trend for connection in the modern physical and commercial world.
Social media was originally envisioned as a tool to foster digital connections and civic engagement. Facebook's mission statement is "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected." Yet, their ad-centric business models inherently rely on making us rely on them, not eachother. They seek to maintain the reliance of the individual on the central hub (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), rather than allowing distinct networks arise independent of the hub.
Decentralised technology, namely DAOs, is trying to address this. Albeit indirectly.
The Internet has democratized community building — communities of all kinds can now be built and scaled entirely (or almost entirely) digitally. — Lisa Xu
DAOs allow a group of people with a similar set of interests to engage toward a joint goal. It could be buying land in Wyoming (like CityDAO) or it could be buying the US Constitution (like ConstitutionDAO). It doesn't really matter what the end goal is, the innovation here is a group of internet natives are able to build connections and pool resources in a novel way.
They are formed collectively without centralised control. Typically, tokens are issued as a way to raise funding for the group treasury. A smart contract will define how the group works, the voting mechanism, and how funds can be allocated.
DAOs have been able to create a new level of joint excitement in pretty obscure projects. Take ConstitutionDAO. In the space of a couple of short weeks, ConstitutionDAO was able to raise almost $50m in crypto donations from thousands of donors. That's roughly the same amount of Bernie Sanders ($34.5m) and Elizabeth Warren ($21.2m) raised in the Q4 2019, the final quarter of the 2020 election democratic primaries!
Instead of the local town hall, DAOs are fostering a new type of community centered around Discord and Telegram. These communication channels are developing into the "hub" for the web3 network. Within them, there's a distinct culture amongst the community, with memes and language only known to the "in-group". gm.
As a new model for internet communities that is intrinsically dependent on the internet itself is fascinating and exciting. Getting people together, deeply engaged, and willing to fund new and obscure projects is a massive win. There's no doubt about it.
Noreena Hertz, an economics professor at UCL, outlined in her book "The Lonely Century" that there is a significant opportunity to address the growing trend in lack of connection.
Business also plays a role in the loneliness economy which will be a booming sector post pandemic. People will look for more ways to reconnect with each other and come together and there’s a real entrepreneurship and innovation opportunity to facilitate that. — Noreena Hertz
DAOs are a sign of our growing need to identify with a community. Declining participation in “traditional” civic institutions demonstrate that Millenials and Gen Z struggle to identify with unions, political parties, and even businesses that are non-internet native. But they are ready to engage in new ways.
DAOs need to be more than just tools for group financial gains
That said, it's also good to reflect on some of the broader trends. I harbour doubts about the financialisation of community that comes with tokenomics. If communities are only worth the sum of their tokens, does that mean people will overly focus on the quantifiable economic gains and away from the qualitative, cooperative elements that communities bring?
I'll close off with a point Lisa Xu wrote in her great post about community infrastructure:
A few months ago, I wrote about the rise of the community department and how community is becoming a company’s most valuable asset.
We shouldn't reduce a community to an asset class and narrowly focus on total token value. A community is far more than the sum of its parts.