Kelly Fernandez 1/4/2017
When discussing process with Kathy and Constantine, Kathy first looked up a dictionary definition of process: “a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end”. Process can be examined and carried out in many different scenarios. Constantine was using Pantsuit Nation to teach me an example of process and the consequences which are aligned with broken process. This has occurred with Libby Chamberlain’s book announcement that she had declared to the followers of Pantsuit Nation. Upon hearing this and watching an uprising of followers feeling somewhat unheard, it appeared to me that the space has undoubtedly changed. There are now many possibilities toward hurt feelings, misunderstandings, mission creep, and minimizing voice. Individuals seem to fear their name and/or story being shared for public eye, possible profit hunger, miscommunicated funding facts, and the underlying idea that some causes can/will be highlighted and other causes could be seemingly swept under the rug. Although observation and participation with Pantsuit Nation has proved to be an anomaly in sociology, the biggest glitch we are observing is within the process. Constantine helped point out that regardless of the good cathartic outcome of the group, at the end of the day Pantsuit Nation was not a group that belonged to one or a few people to one-handedly provide to the public, which is true for any group.
There are a lot of bitter sweet possibilities for a group of 4,000,000 plus and one of the greatest challenges is staying true to a process of communication with those participants. It would have been quite difficult and not plausible for the admins to reach out to each individual and seek their opinions toward this decision. Therefore, there must be revaluations of style of process for a group once it has grown to such an exponential amount, especially so quickly. Perhaps a different way of process would have been to announce the opportunity for the group, rather than the announcing what was going to occur for the group. Even with this solution, there come many more obstacles including backlash hype, deliberation, majority ruling, and whichever causes and ideas maintain the focus. The admins have quite difficult tasks and roles as of now and for the upcoming existence of the group. One thing is certain: the group has evolved on a vast scale quite quickly. Change is always a challenge and an adventure. I look forward to learning more from Pantsuit Nation as an observer for the remainder of the group’s existence. I trust the intentions of those who take the time and courage to share their experience in whichever fashion they choose.
Kathy provided me a great example of process by using a smaller scale group, a neighborhood. She explained the origins of group collaboration and idea implementation. A fault in the process appeared to Kathy when she witnessed one particular neighbor not being heard on a comparable scale to the others. This foreshadows troubles with communication, lack of sustainability, and an imbalance in the neighborhood process. The consequence came about in way of communication being completely severed between this particular neighbor and another neighbor. Even if this story sounds like it might only affect two neighbors, the experience surely affects the entire system, in different ways of course. This can be taken as a learning experience for everyone in this system, but the lesson can be viewed in different ways as well. A feud or any other form of severed communication can be unfortunately passed along as just another consequence within the human condition, but that would be a lazy and unsustainable picture. Groups such as Pantsuit Nation seem to acquire much more global attention and focus because of the large scale of the group. Even with the best of intentions, group work requires attention and special maintenance in order to examine each member’s feelings and quality of life importance.
Process is a challenge that I am feeling a newfound mindfulness toward and I feel that I have achieved greater confidence in group work now that I have these types of perspectives. It is now time for me to move on to my challenge of motivating another individual or potential group to work with me to develop my personal goals toward macro social work and develop the personal goals of others. My contemplation has turned to ways of scoring my mission and Constantine has reminded me of an important perspective that I have not used in a while. This perspective refers to my long lost love for video games, specifically rapid game player. I am remembering what drew me into these games, the character development and team design, the ways in which I can focus on upgrading particular powers, and learning about the different dimensions of the world. Part of these dimensions requires understanding what it means to acquire particular items, places, feelings, and scores. All of these factors move to benefit my character or can become my character’s demise. This lens is serving the duty of helping me brainstorm the world of scoring and upgrading individuals and groups.
This lens is also maintaining my current focus on one of the most sustainable characteristics of humans: our superpowers and weaknesses found through experience. I am hoping to further develop my own powers and explore my weaknesses while also inciting this kind of thinking within any individual or group that I will be working with in the future. My superpower is one of a Reminiscent creature and two my mini powers include Sorting Through Chaos and Self Drive. One of my hugest weaknesses, brought forth particularly at this time of my life, is the Managing the World of Numbers. I am keeping these powers and weaknesses in mind as I seek out my future team and/or partners whilst self-examining my own video game as a Reminiscent. A video game lens and a theater lens are very powerful attributes to me as of now because these are areas of my life that serve as areas that I can only access successfully and most sustainably as a Reminiscent. Therefore, my most present challenge is mindful maintenance of my superpowers and using these qualities to motivate others, especially in their quest to examine their own self hero.
PSN is a secret group on facebook, and as such, it has subscribers. In your use of the term followers above, do you see us as participatory subscribers, sheople, family, more like congregation and clergy, or other?
I see myself as a participatory subscriber because my extent of participation with PSN has, as of now, gone no further than reading posts and updates. I believe that congregation would be a good term to describe the group’s ‘followers’. I decided to use the term ‘followers’ because receiving updates from particular social media such as instagram, facebook, and twitter, we only receive updates for those that we choose to ‘follow’.