communication

By Ande Jacobson

Every so often, particularly when things get very chaotic around me, I think about the world I want to live in. In my recent short story, Humans are Weird, I explored how the Earth, and specifically how humankind might appear to an intelligent extraterrestrial species studying us. Humankind is a single species. Over time, largely because of our tribal nature, we’ve developed multifarious cultures that often put us at odds with one another and more importantly at odds with our continued survival as a species. As Yuval Noah Harari discusses in his book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, we’ve built our societies based on fictional common myths that we all buy into at some level. These myths allow cooperation on a large scale, but they also form the basis for significant exclusion. I see the moves toward exclusion in the news, on social media, even in conversations among my friends as we collectively think about the world around us. Continue reading →

By Ande Jacobson

Writing can be a powerful tool. Written words have the power to induce strong emotions. They give us a way to record history, events, and ideas. They can entertain and inspire. In telling a story, a writer is often trying to elicit a strong response in their readers. As a reader, it can be quite enjoyable to lose one’s self in a well-told story that runs us through a variety of emotional responses.

With the ubiquity of text messaging, the internet, email, and social media, many of us are thrust into the role of writer as well as reader on a daily basis. We share ideas and concerns as we connect with friends and foes, often making new friends along the way. We debate, we cajole, we support, and we entertain through our written exchanges. And sadly, we can sometimes push people we care about away. Continue reading →