6 tips for navigating the “Digital Town Square”

I tend to visualise social media as Elon Musk describes his desire for Twitter/X, as the “digital town square”.

But what would that digital town square look like if it was a real place?

There is a scene in the Life of Brain where Brian Cohen (of Nazareth) finds himself standing on a small wall in front of a crowd of people. In the scene you can see several other people also standing on the wall, they are all preaching about different ‘things’.

As people walk by, some stop while other people continue to walk past.

A more modern representation is a term called “standing on a soapbox”.

This is similar to people standing on the wall preaching in the Life of Brain, instead, people would bring their own wooden box to a busy place, stand on it and start talking/shouting about something they wanted to tell the world.

Again, people would either stop and listen for a while or continue to walk past.

In my view of social media, those people standing on the wall or their soapbox preaching are the original ‘social media’ influences – perhaps more ‘social’ influencers.

And the “digital town square”…

So now imagine a busy place full of people walking in different directions. Some people are muttering to themselves, a few are shouting about things and a few have brought little boxes to stand upon so they can be seen and heard over everyone else.

But most people are just passing through, they are neither mumbling to themselves nor shouting anything and definitely didn’t bring a soapbox to stand on.

They are simply passing through, but they are there for at least one purpose – to see what is going on.

And the beauty of it all, everyone is invited. And anyone can bring their own soap box.

So that “digital town square” looks a little bit like this…

What is the relevance of all this?

1. Understand how the content will land

So now you know what the “digital town square” looks like, you can now better think about how your content will land.

Examples…

If you stand in the “digital town square” shouting “I went sailing this weekend, come here and look at my photos”, then you might get a few thumbs up as people pass by.

If you stand in the “digital town square” shouting something dramatic like “don’t ask” with an angry face, then you will attract people wanting to help, but you will also attract a mixture of people who are the type that slow down to look at an accident (I think the term is rubbernecking).

If you stand in the “digital town square” shouting – “I have 5 proven steps to solve {X}” AND people who are aware of {X} are passing, then you might attract those people to listen.

The point is… think about the content you want to share and understand how it will be received.

Posts for yourself will receive different types of engagement than posting content to help others.

2. It’s a busy place with lots of noise

People have been visiting the “digital town square” for a while, they already know what they like and they know who they listen to.

Imagine you turned up one day and started talking out loud. No one is listening and people can barely hear over everyone else.

Perhaps by chance one person hears you and likes what you are saying. They stay for a while but then leave. Over the next few days, they see you again, still talking out loud to yourself, so they come over again. But this time one extra person joins the crowd, and another, and another.

Then over time more people come over and see what all the fuss is about.

In a crowded space, you will be standing on your own talking to yourself, but over time the right people will come past and want to hear more. It takes time.

3. The “digital town square” is filled with PEOPLE

You can’t stand on your soap box all day shouting your message to people. Occasionally you will need to get down and have a rest.

When we look around the “digital town square” you will see this is how other people behave. They may get on the soapbox and shout once per day, maybe even once every hour. Whatever the cadence is, they have times in between shouting when they are not shouting.

So what do you do?

Do you leave the “digital town square” and come back later when you want to shout your message again?

Or do you stand next to your soap box and just ignore everyone?

Or do you hang about for 30 minutes chatting to people? Networking and building connections?

You see, while no one cares about you, you must do one thing – care about others. So reach out to them.

4. People in the “digital town square” are passing by, not hanging about

Think of the “digital town square” people visit for only short times. They are either bored and want to pass some time, so they stop by “digital town square” or they are on their way to somewhere else.

This means that some people might pass through the “digital town square” at 8 a.m. every day, while others might pass through at 1 p.m.

The “digital town square” is open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Yes even on all major religious holidays, people will still pass by.

So if you turn up to the “digital town square” with your soapbox at 8 a.m. and start shouting your message – only the people who pass by will hear it.

And say you did that same time every day, the people who stop by at 1 p.m. won’t ever have heard of you.

One exception is – that the message you shouted at 8 a.m. was so good that long after you left, people were still talking about it and telling their friends about it.

So remember, “digital town square” is open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

5. Turn up with a message

No one likes to hear someone waffling. You know what I mean – just talking for the sake of talking.

You made the effort to get up early and carry your soapbox to the “digital town square”. Try to make sure you have something good to say.

But if you haven’t figured out what you want to say, don’t let that stop you. Still, get on your soapbox, talk about things you know – learn to reflect on what went and adapt as you move forward.

Every person on their soapbox in the “digital town square” started like that. They just refined over time.

6. Be full of good intent

Remember, you stood on your soapbox in the “digital town square” surrounded by real people.

Real people are motivated by positive intent, so think of your message as one of the following

  • Teach or educate people on something they would like to know
  • Entertain them
  • Make them think and challenge their own way of thinking
  • Empathise and relate to them

Buy the ticket, take the ride

This week has been a tough week. One of the toughest in a while.

Nothing major has happened, but perhaps that is the problem.

Let me explain.

In 1996 I left school, I finished my exams in July and started work in August.

That was 27 years, 1 month and 6 days ago.

In 2014 I started a PhD, working hybrid – some days I’d go into the lab and other days I’d work from home.

In 2017 I started at Spencer Group. This time I went into the office 1 day every 2 weeks and for the remaining days, I worked from home.

In 2019, I packed up my home office (and home) and moved to Ireland to work at Meta. During the first year, I would work full-time in the data centre but then COVID happened and I spent the next 3 years working from home, from my home office.

About 8 weeks ago I got made redundant and didn’t need to sit at the desk in my home office anymore.

After taking those 8 weeks off with the family, I sat down at my desk on Monday with the intention of figuring out “what is next”.

By Wednesday I was struggling.

Now for a random example…

Have you ever seen or met anyone who says something like this – “If I won the lottery I’d still go to work”? They are rare enough but be assured they exist.

Apparently, Luke Pittard did just that. He won £1.3m and “went back to flipping burgers at McDonald’s because he missed his mates”.

Nothing against Luke, I’m sure he is happy and all that – but I find that crazy.

Back to my story…

I didn’t win the lottery, I do have to eventually go back to work and get a job.

But I did get one thing…

I got some breathing space.

After 27 years, 1 month and 6 days of walking along the well-worn path, I have been given some time to figure things out, to do something different.

And this is part that hit me on Wednesday.

So what happened?

In 2014 I started working at home at my desk.

In 2017 I was almost full-time at that desk.

In 2019 I moved the desk over to Ireland but had a break from it for 1 year.

In 2020 I sat back down at my desk.

In 2021 I was sat at my desk.

In 2022 I was sat at my desk.

In 2023 I sat at my desk until I was given the option to not sit at the desk anymore (the big tech layoffs).

And later in 2023, I had the opportunity to do anything – and guess what I did on my first day – I sat back down at my desk.

This time by choice, and by Wednesday I started to doubt that choice.

So what’s the problem?

I, perhaps like many others, want to have a good life.

I guess for everyone that might look very different.

For Kevin, that meant going back to McDonalds and hanging about with his friends.

For me?

Well here is the problem.

I’ve spent two decades getting good at computer science-related stuff. And I’ve spent the last decade getting really good at data science and machine learning.

The downside is that you typically need to be sat at a desk to do computer science, data science or machine learning stuff.

This is where my 27 years, 1 month and 6 days of working have led me – to sit at a desk.

You haven’t told me a problem yet!

A while ago I wrote about role models and in there I mentioned two of my role models, Casey Neistat and Alastair Humphreys.

Both are very different people. But they do have some commonalities…

They are both creative. Casey is a filmmaker and Alastair writes books – to say the least. Both of them are adventurous, as in – they do things which are exciting.

Both of them work hard and spend some time at their desks. But they also manage to have adventurous lives too.

And here is my problem…

I can give myself 3 months to not worry about work.

I could give myself 6 months.

And if I really want to push it, I could give myself over a year.

And what did I do on day 1? I sat back at my desk.

Like Kevin, who could be living a totally different lifestyle – I too returned back to the routine.

The Clichés

Now during these thoughts, I am reminded of the many “live your life” style quotes (above).

You know the ones, things like…

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” – Helen Keller

or

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

or

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

And I realised, on Monday – a time when I could have done anything, I did nothing. Nothing had changed. I was like Kevin.

The conclusion

If Helen Keller asked me “Is your life a daring adventure?” – I’d have to say “Not really”. If Eleanor Roosevelt asked me “When was the last time you did something that scared you?” – I’d have to say “It was a long time ago”. And if Gandhi asked me “What actions are you doing?” – I’d say “sitting at my desk”.

But let’s be honest, how many people do we know who would have had better answers?

To summarise…

It boils down to two options, try to design the life you want to live. Or live the life that was given to you. The one that evolved with you over time.

The former, designing the life you want to live, doesn’t have to be revolutionary, but it does involve effort.

For me, I haven’t figured out what that means.

I’ve had a couple of opportunities to do some projects at my desk, and guess what? – I’m good at them.

But given the opportunity to make changes, changes to live more lively – then yes – I would spend less time at my desk.

Final Thoughts

So if you’ve read this and are thinking that all this seems too absurd, or a waste of mental thought – the good news is – I have made you a list of alternative motivational quotes to live by…

For me, I’m not sure what to do with this yet.

The realist in me knows I may end up having to sit at my desk for extended periods of time. But perhaps I need to figure out the other parts too.

Fin.

Below is a video, I think you might like it. It partly inspired this post.