Internet-Native Squads

Discussion

Scott Moore and Maxwell Kanter:

"Internet-Native Squads have been on the rise since well before the pandemic, even just as evidenced by the tools we use (e.g. moving from the "Facebook wall" era of the 2010s towards a nascent / evolving collective "group chat" era in the 2020s) But on the internet today, social media is still where squads mostly tend to converge. On platforms like Twitter, which act as de facto online town squares, squads often come across each other's unique cultures and languages, and start to converge on new memetic narratives that allow for a kind of unintentional, collective world-building. The connections and lore that form between these squads lays the foundation for the communities and scenes we've become familiar with across the internet.

Although squads don't have to ask the question of how to expand, it's a natural question that arises as they form networks and become interdependent. Through this networked evolution, squads risk losing many of their typical characteristics, and become a different creature with unique attributes. Often, this can result in growing pains as they find themselves navigating where to live on a spectrum from closed, orderly, and rigid to open, chaotic, and fluid.

What squads gain by working through these tradeoffs and integrating into larger groups is, at its end point, the same benefit we all get by participating in society. By introducing structured agreements we can support each other's ambitions, benefit from the positive externalities our specific squads create, and ultimately work together towards grander visions for the future. By sacrificing familiarity, we can strive towards a greater purpose and find a deeper sense of meaning."

(https://www.forefront.market/blog/internet-native-organizations)