How online social communities are reclaiming creativity on the internet
We have launched vector, a community that brings together global creators and cultural thinkers to create immersive experiences and resources that help move the needle on creativity. In this blog post, We Are Social Singapore senior planner & vector lead, Agalia Tan, shares the inspiration behind the community and how it is influencing the future of creativity.
These days, being on the internet feels like we are getting the short end of the stick.
Its promise of hyperconnectivity comes at the expense of connection. Despite having access to more people than ever before, we are plagued by modern loneliness with nearly one in four adults feeling lonely.
Its abundance of content comes at the expense of attention. As the amount of content online balloons by the second, we start to spend less time immersing, and more time flitting from one post to another. Paraphrasing Ted Gioia, a leading cultural critic, from his piece ‘The State of Culture 2024’, the fastest growing sector of culture is distraction, where each stimulus is ephemeral and repetitive.
And the internet’s offer of immediacy comes at the expense of personal taste. We are living in the era of algorithmic social, where algorithms mould recommendations to the preferences we already express, and shepherd us towards content they deem worthy of our time on the app. Sometimes, it no longer feels like we have autonomy over what we choose to listen to on Spotify, or what we look at on Instagram and TikTok.
As WeTransfer’s Networked Counterculture report rightly noted, “if you don’t have a plan for how to use the internet, the internet will use you.”
But here’s the good news: we are making plans.
Culturally, we are taking a few steps back in order to take a step forward.
At the fringes of the internet, we are seeing new-age visionaries rethinking the systems that govern the internet, as well as how to redefine our personal and collective experiences on it.
We are identifying the points where it started to feel wrong: the moment when likes and followers became the goal; when creating online started to feel like a competition; or the moment big social platforms leaned on algorithms to decide what shows up on our feed.
Simply, we are looking to reclaim what we’ve lost.
Inherently social creatures, we are gravitating back towards smaller, niche communities where we can find a sense of connection and fulfilment. Think of the fandom-driven brands such as Corteiz and Barry’s that have become these third spaces for people to mingle; or the decentralised communities on Warpcast and Discord that have become digital haunts for people to revel in their common interests.
These smaller communities share what Toby Shorin, co-founder of nonprofit research organisation Other Internet, coined as ‘squad space’, where members are no longer flitting from one piece of content to another, lost with no context. Instead, they are actively immersing themselves in a shared language, and a palpable, distinctive vibe made up of catchphrases, memes, music, takes, art etc. It’s about reclaiming attention lost to the distraction economy; by entering these communities, it’s pulling focus back to who you are, what you enjoy consuming, and going deep into these rabbit holes alongside people who equally value what you cherish.
The New Roadmap
What makes these communities compelling is not simply what they are, but also how they came to be. The common thread that strings through all of them is the path of deliberation and intentionality that the founders have chosen to embark on.
Rather than aim for standard metrics of high reach, superficial engagement and likes – to quote Frank Chimero, author of The Shape of Design – these communities seek out more meaningful qualities like enthusiasm, engagement, and resonance. You’d find that these communities consequently approach growth cautiously and tenderly through slow launches or by-invite-only tactics to ensure quality drops.
Our heads have continuously been turned by the invisible hand of the market, and for far too long, we’ve allowed these softer qualities to take a backseat. But ironically, these qualities of slowness and deliberation are now becoming the key to surviving in this increasingly cluttered and noisy social space.
At We Are Social, we’ve been looking to craft a space of that nature. vector is a release club that aims to be that cosy space on the internet for global cultural thinkers and tinkerers to gather, mingle, and create collaboratively. Now, vector launches its first zine, a repository of 23 different perspectives on the future of creativity.
While this entire effort took more than a year to come into fruition, it is living proof of how slowness and deliberation can yield more than just tangible outputs. It’s created an environment where people from different disciplines come together to play on an equal playing field; a space where we can literally bring the outside in and cross-pollinate ideas; and for the agency, an opportunity to create room to escape the machine churn and let creativity truly flow.
It will be a slow burn.
But we are stoked to see where that takes us.
Keen to learn more about vector and how the community can help your brand? Reach out to [email protected] find out more or arrange a time to chat with our team.
