Net Culture: Stories of Culture and Diversity in Social Media is an event that featured inspiring and culturally diverse speakers. The night’s topic: how social media has helped various individuals and organizations strengthen their identities, roots and friendships. Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend this sold out, two hour event at the Vancouver Public Library.
The night featured 10 speakers, each highlighting rich stories from their culture. Here are three key takeaways about social media and multiculturalism that the speakers talked about:
1. It’s not about your age.
Ashok Puri, retiree and father of one of the event organizers, talked about how social media has helped him travel all over the globe without going broke. Ashok charmingly told the story of how CouchSurfing helped him explore the world and meet new friends in the process. A good story teller, Ashok also talked about the friendships he made and the adventures (and misadventures) that came with his travels.
My favourite part of his speech was when he made the point that social media is not about how fast you can type. At its core, social media is about connecting with others, and it’s not just for the young ones anymore. Ashok demonstrated the power of great story-telling – he really had the crowd enchanted from the start.
