Social networking is the future, right?
It’s what’s brought
us all together to start up derby leagues around the world since the revival
began in the US. It’s the 21st century, it makes older people mutter
that we’re all glued to our phones/ tablets/ laptops all the time and no-one
ever has a proper conversation any more. All the old ways of doing things are
going to be forgotten. Well, that’s not quite my experience. This is my take on
how social networking has actually made us get ‘back to basics’ in a number of
ways.
The first true social networking site I belonged to was
flickr. What started as a way to share photos with some friends and family
around the place quickly evolved into discovering what a true worldwide
community I now belonged to. Joining groups led me to find out about all sorts
of things. How a friend of a friend in Iowa had decorated her house. The
colourful cityscapes of Tokyo. Beautiful landscapes in Iceland where a
colleague had emigrated to. Yet there was one thing I kept discovering that I
hadn’t anticipated on the web. This was the amazing crafts that people were
making and sharing. I had dabbled in craft and embroidery for some time; but
was amazed to find the revival that was happening around the world (sound
familiar?). Making contacts and joining
groups on flickr led me to learn more and try out new ideas – you can
participate in a craft swap with people around the world, whether you work in traditional
embroidery, machine stitchery, subversive cross stitch, mixed media, knitting,
card making, scrapbooking… In the time
since 2007, I’ve joined a stitching group, gone to exhibitions and workshops
and generally met real people, but I still like to stick my pictures up online
to share with others.
I didn’t really know a lot about roller derby before I
joined my brand new league, Hulls Angels Roller Dames, towards the end of 2010.
What I did know, I now realise had been kind of filtered into my brain through
all the social networking I’d been doing.
As soon as I began to get to know people from my own league and later
from around the UK, my list of facebook friends suddenly went nuclear. If I
wasn’t sure about a move or a rule, I looked it up on youtube and straight
away, there was someone explaining it in a helpful video. I could watch my
idols at all hours of the night and day on DNN and rduk.tv There’s a simple
commonality here: these are movements where people are passionate about what
they are doing. They get up off their backsides and get it done. If it doesn't exist, these are people who find a way to make it possible and then go a step
further and share with others how it was done. I don’t think it’s a coincidence
that the stitchy/ crafy world and roller derby are both arenas in which you
will find successful women. Whatever background these women come from, it’s not
enough for them just to lead a 9 to 5 existence. They need something more and
they bring it. It’s not only women, either, as I’m sure the talented Mr X will
demonstrate.
The culmination of these two areas is where stitched craft
and roller derby meet. Browse through the Phat Quarter group on flickr or do a
quick search on Ravelry or Tumblr and you will immediately stumble across derby-related
crafts. My league and many others I've seen have hand-made items on their merch
stall: sock monkeys, hand-embroidered gifts, a rag-rug in the shape of a
skate. Recently I found out about the
roller derby quilt project, although it’s been going some time. Here is
evidence, if you ever needed it, of how one woman’s idea was made possible by
having derby contacts first around America and then around the world. Each
league or skater involved made a quilt square to be joined together into one
big quilt of derby love. It’s gone huge; it’s gone epic! The new goal is to get
a square from each league around the world. Get involved at http://rollerderbyquilt.blogspot.com.
I decided to make a square to represent the UKRDA, and next I’ll be getting the
skilled ladies of my league together to make a square representing Hulls
Angels. The passion, the skill and the
motivation to do better is what we share. Social
networking just makes the world a little bit smaller.
