Electronic Media for Humanist Community Building
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen (Edited by Richard Dowsett, Humanist Association of Toronto Coordinator and Treasurer)
Publication (Outlet/Website): Jacobsen’s Jabberwocky (Humanist Association of Toronto)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/07/21 (Submission Date)
Electronic media can facilitate the future of humanist communities. Most Canadians use communications technologies. That is, many humanists across Canada could garner greater opportunities for community building compared to any prior time with the flexibility afforded by electronic media.
The Computer Age characterizes the late 20th and early 21st century as much as vacuum tubes and the transistor in the middle of the 20thcentury, or the fossil fuels throughout the 20th.
With this Computer Age, this Information Technology Era, we work within the patterns of the old media. However, these processes become more efficient with asynchronous and geographical possibilities – time and place are not problems.
The old form of organizing during the height, while alive, of Paul Kurtz, Bertrand Russell, Niels Bohr, John Dewey, R. Buckminster Fuller, Karl Popper, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Isaac Asimov, and other humanist luminaries; the world of the eary and middle 20th century seemed more difficult to organize in, to humanize – so to speak.
The nature of community organizing was harder. The founding of organizations, coalitions, and groups was more difficult. The reasons are numerous, but some are the limitations in travel and the cost of the both one’s self and simple information too, especially compare to the modern era. Others are the limits in outspoken formal non-religion.
Things go “viral” now. The Internet makes for the greater possibilities of online communities of mind to build. Humanists amount to such a group. If I survey some of the landscape in the nation, Canada contains a variety of organizations, which seem to organically grow and evolve with online communities.
As the digital technology progresses and becomes better, the communities become more robust at-a-distance and at different times. People can post articles, comments, host Facebook chats, host groups online, debate and discussions through fora, create multimedia presentations and promotional videos for a variety of humanist causes.
The benefit from these electronic media comes from the basis for a more robust and inclusive environment for those humanists from more remote areas; those tacitly humanistic Canadians who could not come into the fold. Why? Technology limitations of the time; financial limitations to purchase technology, recently.
However, technology becomes cheaper and the platforms for engagement become cheaper or free. If humanists on a campus want to organize, they can form a secular student alliance or a formal humanist group on campus. Then they function electronically.
The online environment can provide the similar communal experience as in person communities. Take, for example, the university environment and the communities built with student groups.
It is important to incorporate the in-person meetings and debates and hosting tables in campus areas to let people know about the group. At the same time, we can rest assured the online community building is as or more important now.
This gives a solid basis to join and contribute at any stage of life. For example, an individual can respond to a forum post of an online group within minutes or months.
Also, the online community provides a particular filtration for the debates and discussions on some issues as comments can be screened according to previously set codes of conduct and standards of behavior set by the humanist organization for their online group.
Screening can provide potentially interested humanists with a more inclusive environment and an appropriate safe, respectful state of mind when they first approach the community from the outside.
Humanists are a disparate group. They are minorities within a minority of the non-religious. There is a negative perception of the non-religious. However, this perspective is changing over time. The need for a safe, respectful space is important in the light of the negative public perception of humanists.
Back to the university example, we can see the Secular Student Alliance working for the furtherance of a secular space for students. These efforts mean a lot to individual students. In a similar manner, spaces for other adults – humanists – could perform the same function in a similar way.
The modern period provides a firmer foundation with better and more ubiquitous technology, greater use of the technology, and ergonomic appeal (its ease of use for people). Why not take advantage of it?
With these powerful tools for community building at their fingertips, who knows what the humanist geniuses of today can accomplish?
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