Campfire Convention

January 2018

I’ve joined Campfire Convention, which is the a fantastic project founded by my old friend Pete Lawrence.

More and more these days I think there is a call to (re-)create the communities that we have organically lost as we evolve into a more transient, temporary style of living.

It’s no-longer given that we know who are tribe our, so we are looking for ways to answer that for ourselves and seek out the ‘others’.

One of the things I notice more and more in my therapeutic practice, is a tendency to see freelancers and people who not only may have lost touch with their home communities (if they ever existed in the first place) but work on their own, or in temporary project based relationships.

What this creates is a growing sense of isolation and which is something that is coming up more and more in client sessions.

Being out of connection, being isolated is often a pre-condition to symptoms such as anxiety, depression, addiction and compulsive behaviours.

Paradoxically we are also hyper-connected through a plethora of social media channels that seem to be built to bring out our natural anxiety, that everyones lives are better then ours!

Studies have shown that there is a 40% drop in empathy and social skills in the Millennial generation due to them spending more and more time interacting online instead of in real life.

This I think is terrifying, and will lead to more social isolation and the problems this brings.

I think that the Campfire Convention can help answer these questions. Yes, it’s (another) website, yet instead of being a place to post pictures of avocados on toast, it’s a website with a social consciousness.

As they put it:

“We believe that there is a desire for a new community with potential to grow into a vibrant ecosystem where people can come together to share common interests, passions, ethics and motivations, whether related to work or play. We aim to provide an environment where members can facilitate personal and social change, free of many of the restrictions and machinations associated with commercial interests.

Campfire is a social experiment in collaboration and social change. The web community aims, like a traditional campfire gathering, to encourage members to tell their story, celebrate song, discuss issues of the day, explore new possibilities, start a movement, showcase work and ideas, formulate campaign ideas, chase dreams or find out what’s going on in the world. Or just chill.”

I look forward to being part of this community. Find me on there @BeMoreYou

https://campfireconvention.uk/

Posted by Jonathan Goldsmith in January 2018
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