Why Slow Social matters

Slow Social is nothing new.
For the longest time it's all there was.

As the technological advancements of the late 20th century took hold, our lives as individuals, communities, nations, cultures underwent a species level transformation.
Communications networks which have the power to connect everyone around the globe, almost instantly - but not all the communication modes appear to be having a positive impact.

"Recency overtook significance."

The seemingly endless stream, can lead to passive dependency. Instead of spending our time deliberately, we can slump into a pattern of ‘waiting’... swiping down or refreshing the feed to see if someone, somewhere has done something we can distract ourselves with for a few second.

“I see you” is often expressed by tapping the like button... often without even reading the content. Interaction analysis indicates that people scroll over 2x faster on social networks on mobile.... the feed becomes a blur... with ever diluted meaning.

The dopamine hit of external validation guided what we shared.
External validation was increasingly sought, but perhaps decreasingly authentic.

Popularity .... can become a surrogate of value, and meaning.
It can be tempting to form a version of our lives that we hope others will ‘like’ more.

"The stories that we tell about our lives, become the story of our lives."

There is certainly a place for today's popular Social Networks - Facebook, Twitter, snapchat and the other fast networks have given us so much. However, we do have some concerns about some of the behaviours they encourage, and there is clearly a growing urgency for the need to also consider using Slow Social networks too.

Just like our thinking, our Social should be fast, and slow.

Slow approaches for Fast networks

There is an opportunity to augment these fast flowing content streams with additional sources for slower, more considered and more meaningful

• Only check your feed a set number of times a day or hour
• Leave the Stream - delve into a single stream.
• Read the words of your friends - all of them, just as you would listen to them if they were sat with you.
• Take the time to get in touch in more ways.
• Turn of (most) notifications - be here now.
• Don't rely on the algorithms to show you what is meaningful.
• Curation is an act of love.
• Consider signing up for a purpose built Slow Social platform

“Who and what we surround ourselves with is who and what we become.”

“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.”