Sustainability in the Digital Ecosystem
Sustainability can be understood as the protection of a community against decline. The community in question could be as small as an online group of like-minded folks, whose longevity depends heavily on trust and safety within the group. Or the community in question could be as big as humankind, whose longevity depends heavily on the conservation of natural resources and the protection of our planet. In any case, most people would say that social media and sustainability don’t mix. At Mesh, we’re out to prove those people wrong.
To be fair, the major social platforms don’t make it easy to believe that social media and sustainability could be compatible. The way those platforms are structured simply does not incentivize brands to be good, nor do good, when it comes to sustainable practices. That’s because they are pay-to-play, meaning the more money a brand has, the more people it can pay to reach. And the more people a brand can afford to reach, the more money it makes. Under this model, no one holds the brand to account. The platforms don’t vet brands to see if they value sustainability before giving them unfettered access to impressionable consumers.
At Mesh, we believe that reach should be a privilege earned, not a commodity bought. Our model puts a middleman between brands and consumers, and that middleman is YOU, the creator. YOU are the human component in this equation, and brands have to build a relationship with you in order to reach your community. You are the gatekeeper who asks: What are this brand’s values? Do its values jibe with my values and those of my community? If the answer to that question is yes, you can choose to partner with that brand. Ads for brands you believe in will be the only ads your community sees. That gives you the power to direct your community’s wallets towards companies that have sustainable practices and are actively trying to make the world a better place.
On Mesh, you’re not just a creator. You’re also a leader in the social media revolution. You have the power to leverage your influence to bring sustainable products and businesses to your community’s attention. You have the power to funnel resources to brands that actually care about things like social justice and environmentalism… not just their bottom line. Your community holds you to account, and you hold the brand to account. And, in turn, the brand can pull their funding if you and your community are not holding up your end of the bargain by prioritizing the common good. Therein lies the system of checks and balances that the social giants’ platforms so sorely lack — the system of checks and balances that prevents unchecked corporate greed from ruling our society.
We no longer live in a world in which we can separate our online values from our real-life values. The way we live online is the way we live. Period. At Mesh, we understand that sustainability in the digital ecosystem lends itself to sustainability in the real world. In other words, putting people before profit online protects the longevity of communities big and small, and it’s good for the planet. That’s why Mesh reimagined the relationship between communities and brands to make the quality of human relationships more valuable than the metrics of engagement.