Talking Community and Connection at SXSW

For the first time in the festival’s history, SXSW broadened its 2018 programming to include a series of workshops and panels exploring spirituality in the 21st century. With topics ranging from spirituality in political activism to the challenge of creating spiritual communities online, the inclusion of the series represents a shift in the traditionally arts- and tech-focused festival to include a wider audience, and demonstrated a willingness to tackle deeper cultural issues of inclusion, connection, and meaning.

Center for Council Executive Director, Jared Seide, spoke on a panel, “Finding Spiritual Community Both On and Offline,” as part of SXSW’s new spirituality series. Seide, along with Rabbi Neil Blumofe, explored the triumphs and challenges of community building in the digital age. The discussion shed light on a multitude of ideas and challenges we face in our technology-heavy world, one in which we are increasingly connected to our screens, but not each other, and the information we receive about our world is carefully curated, particularly through the algorithms engrained in the social platforms we use. Much of the information that comes to us is intended to confirm our biases, and sometimes stoke our fears, in service of the agendas and platforms that want to keep us engaged.

Seide explained at the panel, “Our brains are designed to process complex, non-linear, environmental information. We orient to and depend on a ​diversity of input to understand community,​ to figure out how we feel about​ safety, ​about ​belonging, ​about ​compassion.​ We depend on sensations and micro-expressions and body language and that mysterious sense we get when we feel ‘some kinda way.’ That stuff doesn't come to us through technology, at least not yet. We ​really ​need to show up, with other​ humans​, face-to-face, in real time. We need to convene​. We need to connect. ​And I'm worried that our over​-​reliance on​ our screens just reinforces our diminishing experience of real relationship​s​​; it diminishes our relational skills; it diminishes community. We crave connection,​ ​​and human contact​, but that's not what we get from screens​. Online interactions, and now VR, ​can extend ​some​​ experiences, and maybe extend our reach, ​but ​these things cannot ​replace ​human connection."​

Center for Council is thrilled to be at the forefront of these exchanges. In a time that favors advancing technology, how can we hold on to practices that reinforce human connection, build community in the physical realm, and foster compassionate relationships between individuals?

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