Local Impact, Praxis, and Digital Overwhelm

Karen Costa asked a great question on LinkedIn this week that has had me thinking about how we balance all the information that is out there, but also what she is expressing which is the feel that maybe we are adding to digital noise. I really do believe that not saying anything because you don't want to contribute to the noise is probably exactly what the systems want us to do. Especially in a time of silencing folk from marginalized and multi-marginalized spaces. But I also know that the algorithms also do their magic sorcery to make what seems like noise either be more common in our feeds and spaces, no matter how well we try to curate information and connections.

I know that I have experienced lately a feel that LinkedIn is probably suppressing my posts both in terms of blog posts and in terms of my podcast posts. I have some ideas as to why that is, but also I know that as a Canadian this is one of those things that often happens in HigherEd. The Canadian voices are muted and the American voices are boosted. I feel in the last year this has become even worse, and in fact with the end of Academic Twitter, I feel incredibly disconnected from the people and voices that I used to see on my feed regularly. 

I now find myself doing more micro and local work. Reading groups both at work, but also in the community that I live in, and in the disability community that I found on that very same Academic Twitter, made up of a folk from across Canada and the United States. I also continue to host and organize discussion groups on different topics online that meet monthly and are again composed of folk from across Canada and the United States. These discussion groups and reading groups allow for an extension of the kind of research, pedagogy, and praxis that I talk about here and in my podcast.

I have also gone to so many different theatre and art events over the last month and a half. This is also ways to connect to different folk who often share ideas, values, and ways of understanding the communities they are in at micro and macro levels. I am really working on the local impact part of my praxis, not to completely disconnect from the digital overwhelm, because I still am engaged and want to be engaged online, but as a way to really complement the kinds of things I share. 

I have also been writing a lot, like a ridiculous amount. And not journal articles and research paper type writing, but poetry. I am finding myself writing at least 2 poems a day on average. The kind of poetic output that I have not had since I was in undergrad and in my early 20s. It has me thinking why that is, and I think what all of these threads have in common is the need, the absolute foundational need in 2026 for all of us to create meaningful things and share those meaningful things we have created. And not to make this into a whole Bloom's Taxonomy post (because that is a more nuanced conversation to be had because Blooms is problematic in many ways, and I don't have the space to have that conversation right now because I have 2 drafts of poem ideas that I am deeply compelled to finish today lol) but there is a reason why create is at the top of that pyramid (however problematic the pyramid is).

I know end of terms are difficult because folk have run out of steam, there are so many to dos, and there is not enough time to fill cups. But the creating is actually one way to fill that cup for teaching teams and learners. And again that creation can be done in different ways that are meaningful to the context, the creator's positionality, and ultimately whatever goals or supports may be need. There's been so many great sessions on making posters for Trans Day of Visibility, that I sadly could not make because of other commitments, but I will be going to the march and try to find space to make my own poster. That is an example of meaningful creation, that supports community. I have also been seen some tabling happening on campus with creative aspects attached, like stickers or colouring. These are the kinds of cognitive shifting opportunities that are so needed at this time of the year.

And there can be also very local micro work done at neighbourhood scale or friends group scale. I have been making a lot of soup this week, cause sadly a lot of the folk that I care about are not feeling well right now. And being able to make that soup, carry it to their house and leave it at the door so they don't have to worry about cooking, and having something warm and comforting when they feel poorly is also an example of creating things. I know I say this a lot as a joke in some spaces I am in, but I really do mean it, maybe the answer to some of this is soup.  Sure LinkedIn is not going to like supporting a post on soup in its algorithm, but I am telling you the ROI of soup is higher than any pyramid scheme (Blooms included lol). 

So sure the social media lever switchers put so much noise in your feed that it is difficult to find the gems, maybe some of those levers will see this as noise too, but I don't think the answer is to not create, it is rather to create meaningfully and in different ways. Isn't that what UDL AND Improv tells us? We are in digital overwhelm so maybe we should not add to the overwhelm YES, AND we can use the information we find in those overwhelming streams to find areas that need support and meaningfully connect locally instead. So if you can, go make soup and share it with someone, there is always someone who needs soup. Soup is the local impact we need right now.