I’m shocked that some people still don’t understand the Internet and continue to fight against inevitability.
A Story
Data points:
- I live in an apartment complex.
- There are 250-300 units.
- Nearly 500 people live in the three apartment building complex.
- When I moved in, I noticed that the only people that talked to one another were the dog people, because we’d all meet out in the court yard to walk our dogs.
I decided to start a Facebook Group to connect the rest of the non-dog-owning residents.
I purchased little cards (called favicards) with the address of the Facebook Group. I walked the entire complex and stuck a card to each apartment door.
Within a few days we had upwards of 30 people in the group.
The purpose was to connect people and build a community within the building.
- A place where people could coordinate social events.
- A place where people could sell things (like furniture, cooking equipment, or electronics) instead of Craigslist or eBay.
- A place where people could ask for help moving something heavy.
- A place where people could ask to borrow someone’s phillips head screwdriver, hammer, or duct tape.
- A place to find a workout partner, or someone to walk your dog.
Several Days Later
I got a call from the management of the complex. They requested that I take down the group, because some of the condo owners were “concerned that people would complain inside the group.”
I emphatically refused.
I carefully explained that the apartment complex has absolutely no right to dictate how I use Facebook, has absolutely no power to compel me to take it down, and that if they wanted to go toe-to-toe with an internet professional, they would lose.
I then tried to explain the benefit of having a channel like this. Until this group, the management had no way to contact residents apart from calling each individually, or slipping paper under their doors. This group gave them a direct line of sight into what people were saying.
They realized that I wasn’t going to budge, and left it at that.
Since Then
The group has grown, mostly organically through word of mouth, though sometimes I put out some additional cards near the mailboxes in each building.
Conversations inside the group are almost entirely positive. People connect with one another. They ask questions. They sell their unused Keurig machines and TV stands. Everything is fine.
A Frustrating Development
I’m moving out of this complex soon. While packing I noticed that I still had a sizable stack of cards. So I decided to leave out a few large stacks of cards at each mailbox so that new residents could join our community.
I put the cards out in the afternoon and a few hours later they were gone…ALL GONE. There is only one explanation given the large number of cards: someone threw them out.
Someone saw these cards and thought they could stop the further growth of the community. Whoever it was took it upon themselves to determine whether or not others should be given the opportunity to easily join this group.
Yet, they did not stop anything. All they did was waste some of my time and money.
Fear
Whoever threw out these cards was scared. They were scared of people talking and somehow deluded themselves into thinking that this tiny act of rebellion would make that stop.
The internet does not work that way.
If people want to talk, they will. Even if the group was removed from this earth, people would still talk, it would just be more difficult to find. By having a centralized place, everyone benefits.
I wish I could find that person and question their understanding of the world to get a better sense of why they feel the need to attempt to control it, when that is, in fact, impossible.