Last updated on April 6th, 2021 at 12:34 am
The farther I travel down the rabbit hole of social networking, the more I discover about myself and the things that matter to me. Last night’s Crashaversary was key in helping to illuminate this point for me.
Starting with Twitter is much like how youād first use any new technology or toyāyou excitedly play around with it, trying to figure out all the things you can do with it. but you soon realize that simply using Twitter as social media does you no favours. You can send a million tweets out into the depths of the Internet as you please, but it doesnāt mean that anyoneās actually going to LISTEN to you. It doesnāt mean that anyoneās going to RESPOND.
Despite having a Twitter account for three years now, it wouldnāt be until October 19, 2010, where Iād figure out what you need to do to take all that aimless tweeting and endless tinkering to the next levelāhitting up the tweetups.
But much like Twitter itself, the tweetups start as something new and shiny. You want to be seen out in the world as much as possible and see as many new people as possible. This is all good and well, but you can only meet SO many new people before it becomes overwhelming. And of those, you can only maintain SO many meaningful relationships. You can only go out SO much of the time. So your patterns start to change.
You stop going out as much for the sake of going out and start going out because people that MEAN something to you will be in attendance. You stop needing to be involved in each and every thing going on around you and start choosing to go to the events where you KNOW youāre going to have a good time.
To me, Crashaversary did all that to a tee. Hosted by Christine, aka @wedding_crasher, this is how she describes Crashaversary:
CrashaversaryāA get together to celebrate life.
August 26th 2002, I was struck in an intersection while riding my motorcycle. It was life altering.
Rather than feeling down and depressed this time of year, I’d like to invite you to celebrate with me.
“Celebration” didnāt have to be a big party. “Celebration” didnāt have to have a lot of fanfare and promise free swag in order to have a good time (though e11even was kind enough to give some free swag without prompting, which was very kind of them.) All that celebration involved was having a bunch of good people who WANTED TO BE THERE and have a good time IN THE COMPANY OF ONE ANOTHER.
I found that it was one of the funniest, happiest and sincerest nights out that I could remember in a while. I joked around with Sandy and Rowena, had in-depth conversations with Shoreh (who Iām STILL shocked that I only met for the first time that night!), and loved the time I got to spendāhowever long or shortāwith Natasha, Marc, Calvin, Lucy, Tiffany, Lisa, Justin, Jason and Karen. Add the AMAZING food that e11even provided to the mix, and itās a night Iāll remember for a while to come.
So remember. Itās not about getting to meet āthe most popular person in the roomā. Itās not about hitting every event or getting as many people as possible to talk about you, follow you or want to be you the next day. Noāitās about what you PUT INTO and what you GET OUT of the situations youāre in. Relationships are never a one-way street, and if youāre always trying to get without giving, youāll soon find that thereās little left for you to grab on to.
Fun, Food, Friends and Crashaversaryāthe fourth F. Thatās all you need to make a good week even BETTER.
Thanks, Christine.
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