Re: About Whiteboard Sessions

Whiteboard Sessions is about therapy. 

I was in 5th grade when the internet moved into my home. My first email address was set up with Juno and the melodic tone of dial-up is pure nostalgia. Curse the phone that would always ring and kill my internet connection right before my latest crush would affirm or reject my digital charm. I carried the kind of confidence where I couldn't talk to the girl at school the next day, but would patiently await her arrival with the “door opening” sound effect in the evenings. 

The truth is being disappointed in front of a screen didn’t pack the same punch as face-to-face rejection. 

My true love and admiration for the internet began when I customized my MySpace profile and made my first website through GeoCities in high school. I remember using their free website builder and it having a MIDI soundtrack in the background. I remember thinking, “How cool is it that people who have access to the internet have access to these ideas?” 

I experienced Yahoo! in its prime. 

I downloaded music from Napster. 

I signed-up for Facebook when you could only sign-up using a .edu email address. 

I ordered books on Amazon when the website only had books to buy. 

I made my first blog on Xanga and then shifted to WordPress. 

And then everything changed (again) when the internet became accessible in our smartphones. 

In many ways the internet allows access to the world with a click of a button. It provides  pathways to interact with other people without borders. It gives us world news on-demand. It allows us to work from anywhere. We pay our bills with it. Every day, we engage new ideas and reflect on old ones (like the one you’re reading now). It provides countless laughs, ways to connect with old friends, and free two-day shipping. 

And as much as we all take the internet for granted—it continues to shape almost every sector of society: media, arts and entertainment, science, education, faith, government and the social sector. 

At some point though, navigating the perpetual newness of the World Wide Web stopped being as fun. It became about data and clicks, attention wars, political banter, follower counts, and manipulation. 

It began to serve as a veneer between our true selves and our digital personas.

I noticed influencers that bought all of their followers. 

I observed families with perfect Instagram profiles getting divorced.

I read comment sections full of insults. 

I saw companies I admired for their values that didn't reflect those values in their Glassdoor reviews. 

The truth is “success” online isn’t a guarantee for flourishing in real-life. 

Today, that curious 5th grader is now a thirty-something husband, dad to two kids, and the co-founder of a creative agency. My love for the internet remains, but not without taking pause in the practices and strategies we promote in our work.

Can internet culture translate into the common good?

The common good is “that which benefits society as whole.” Or, in the words of President Woodrow Wilson, “There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”

I believe brands have a special seat at our kitchen tables. Brands possess underlying values of what we really care about. 

Over the past decade, the world has experienced a radical digital transformation. Despite my cynicism, I possess an indelible optimism for what the internet could be. I believe the internet ought to be a place for hope, restoration, reconciliation, rather than a bottomless pit of noise, infotainment, and targeted advertising. 

I truly believe technology wants to make us better people. Better humans. Better friends. Better mothers and fathers. Better sisters and brothers. But it's up to people to create new opportunities, projects, and entities that help frame how we think and act both online and offline. 

Therapy is a tool that helps people uncover strengths and learn skills that empower them to deal with the challenges of life. Similarly, my hope is that Whiteboard Sessions is a tool that helps others navigate the perpetual chaos we're surrounded by on the World Wide Web--and find the things that are good, true, and beautiful within it.

The true irony in my work is that I really don’t want people to get lost in a digital world, but look up to the wonder of the world in front of us.

Welcome to Whiteboard Sessions.