Sunk costs vs new opportunities

For many of us, the internet has enabled us to show more of ourselves. We’ve been able to have conversations with school friends and discover that they too also found things difficult, or we’ve found others who share our interests and that’s led to new conversations, friendships, and adventures.

The opportunities for collaboration, creativity, and simply joy in belonging to something are huge online. We’re not restricted to the 30 people in our class, or who we’re in the office with. You can join in whether you live on your own, or are surrounded by people.

It’s wonderful.

But when things go wrong, it hits us hard. Our place in the world can feel threatened.

Over the years, several high profile fandoms have found their favourite writers’ values do not align with their own, for instance.

And now, platforms we have come to rely on as part of our social sphere are changing how they operate, and again, their owners’ values might misalign with our own.

Then we feel let down. Or that we’ve wasted time and effort on something that no longer feels good.

And that’s hard. We have sunk costs.

It feels like the online world is moving even more quickly this year, with investments in AI and changes to X and Meta, which can also make us feel off kilter.

These developments are an opportunity

They’re an opportunity to think about our values, what matters to us, and ask ourselves whether we’re giving time and attention to the things we find joy in, or supporting someone else’s agenda.

They’re also an opportunity for us to consider what we want. If we feel the current offer online doesn’t meet our needs, then there are opportunities for new spaces to be created.

If we don’t like being products then we need to think about how these spaces work. How are they supported? Who pays for them?

What governance do we want to see online? How do we make that happen?

We want people to see us as ourselves. I don’t think using robots to ‘talk’ to us is the answer to that feeling of isolation and loneliness. I think we need to find new ways to come together.

We’re all craving connection and belonging

I’ve read some interesting articles this week about community and how things are changing.

Jon Alexander has written a brilliant piece called Citizen Future: why we need a new story of self and society on Medium. Rather than us putting our faith in a specific leader, or believing we all have to be consumers where “all faith is placed in economic growth and technological advance to keep humanity ahead of the game”, Jon argues for a third option: being citizens. Working together to create the world we want.

Jon says: “As citizens, we look around, identify the domains where we have some influence, find our collaborators, and engage. And, critically, our institutions encourage us to do so.”

We have to believe change is possible. And then we need to take action to achieve it. We don’t have to stay stuck.

Jon wrote: “It is the old stories that are broken, not humanity.”

And I believe that to be true.

While I was writing this article in You Are The Media’s write-along session, a great example of a community working together, Mark Masters shared this article from The Times: The social bonds that tie us are the UK’s hidden wealth. It’s about research by Demos on the impact of social capital. Connections between us build trust and have an economic impact – we’re able to do more.

That willingness to step out of expected narratives, or to say, ‘x should fund y’ leads to innovation, new solutions, and opportunities for us to create what we want to see.

Last week Michael Sheen announced he was funding a new Welsh theatre company to tell good stories well to large audiences. He’s financing it to get it off the ground.

This story about a man who inherited £100,000 and decided to donate it to his local community caught my eye over Christmas. He was inspired by the concept of democratising philanthropy.

If you could choose, what would you like to see in your community? What opportunities for positive change do you see?