Behind closed doors

On gated social communities

I was recently invited to join a private group with only 30 members and, to be perfectly honest, was flattered that someone should reach out to me in such a fashion. I hesitated slightly but joined in the hope that it might be a way to reinvigorate my social experience with some like minded, intelligent people who shared a growing disillusionment with the state of the social web.

In my case, this disillusionment lead to the eventual deletion of my Google+ account.

I have no doubt that the group began with the best of intentions: as a place away from the public feed; away from the self serving rubbish that passes for value in our social streams; even as a place to kick back and relax without judgement, without tarnishing an established public reputation, potentially impacting business prospects.

Unfortunately, this kind of environment can become equally self serving and elitist, passing judgement on the world beyond itself thinly disguised as curiosity, confusion and those oh so best of intentions.

Unless dealing with specific individuals on a genuinely private matter, I have always prided myself on posting everything public: what you see is what you get, nothing to hide, and this type of closed environment stands counter to everything that I have stood for on the social web. I am not comfortable existing in a network within a network, a separate existence or identity whose existence is to judge or coexist with those who do the judging.

I have always maintained that anything I say can be said in public and that I will stand by my words unless convinced they are proven wrong with reasoned argument or with the benefit of hindsight. Hiding in plain sight, living two lives, runs contrary to everything I believe the social web should be and how I should act as part of it: even within closed networks we can and should be open and honest.

There is a lure to such closed, gated communities: the lure of being wanted, included, of feeling special, but there also exists a clear danger of getting sucked in and becoming exactly what you have always complained about, a hypocritical duality.

Inclusion in a small group means only one thing: the exclusion of everything else.

The purpose might be to remove the banal homogeneity of the public stream (and we all need a place to get away from it all) but a closed group will, ultimately, only serve to reinforce its own ideas and, I hate to say it, prejudice. Negativity can fester and grow unchecked in in a self sustaining feedback loop.

There is just as much pressure to conform, perhaps even more so, within a restricted environment due to the added pressure of exclusivity.

Surely, it is better to challenge and change things out in the open instead of skulking in the shadows.