Cyberspace is the information center and social playground
of the relatively young, like middle-aged folks and especially the ever
booming numbers of youngsters who are growing up with the word "internet"
as commonplace in their thoughts as "TV" and "library".... Not exactly.
Seniors are exploring cyberspace also, setting up their own territories
and groups, such as Third Age, Senior.com, Senior Search, and the AOL
Senior chat rooms. Unique among these online worlds is The Geezer Brigade
(www.thegeezerbrigade.com) - a group that relishes the philosophy of being
feisty codgers and codgerettes, as well as any and all humor that allows
them to defy, embrace, and transcend the experience of being old. They
are an excellent example of how the internet offers the opportunity for
individuals with special interests, issues, or backgrounds to come together
in a virtual group. In the "real" world, such groups may have been impossible
to create due to geographical distance or simply the inability of the
people to find each other.
People Make a Group:
The Founders, Leaders, and Membership
How does the background,
personality, and vision
of the founders shape
the initial spirit and
direction of the group? |
A first step in understanding any group - online or otherwise
- is knowing something about its members, its leaders, and especially
the founders whose vision shaped the group's initial spirit and direction.
The Geezer Brigade (TGB) was created and continues to be run by The Geezer-in-Chief
John Kernell, 65, of South Carolina (initially, he told me NORTH Carolina,
but later jokingly corrected himself and chalked up his absented-minded
error as "a senior moment"). Retired in 1991 from his position as vice
president for an international PR firm, Kernell did anything but "retire"
from an energetic lifestyle. He moved to Mexico, finished a novel, became
fluent in Spanish, formally studied piano at a music conservatory, played
piano in a good restaurant, designed an alternative therapy program to
overcome his health problems, took his son to Europe on stock market profits,
and eventually moved to Charleston for the weather and cultural opportunities.
He also a has degree in English, Speech and Drama from Cornell and received
an MA in counseling psychology when he was 44. It was during his drive
to Charleston that he came up with the idea for a seniors club called
The Geezer Brigade. At first he wasn't sure how he was going to make it
work, but when he fired up his PowerMac and connected to AOL, a pop-up
ad announced "Put your business on the Internet." And so he did. "I always
knew I would some day seek to empower other Seniors while in retirement.
Empowerment through humor is one way.... My forebears were Irish vaudeville
comedians." As its founding member, he brought to TGB the energetic, adventurous,
and broad-minded attitude that is so evident in his life.
What is the composition
of the group membership?
How does it influence the
dynamics of the group?
|
TGB itself consists of approximately 160 members from all
over North America, equally split between men and women. The average age
for men is 73 and for women,70. The entry level age is 55, with the oldest
man at 96 and the oldest woman, 88. Most members are retired mid-level,
white collar workers, with a college degree but no advanced education.
"But the group is very heterogeneous," Kernell explained, "LOTS of exceptions.
Ex-Army. Language teacher. Dentists. Doctors." No doubt, the adventurous,
open-minded philosophy of TGB draws such a diverse collection of people
together, and that diversity in turns reinforces the philosophy.
Who are the leaders
who emerge in the group
and how do they shape
its evolution?
|
Leadership and motivation for promoting the group tend
to emerge from the membership when people feel a common bond, when there
is group spirit. While members of TGB enjoyed the humorous e-mail publications
distributed daily, it was the Saturday chat program that enabled them
to "meet," to get to know each other and connect as a group. As a result,
Kernell noted, it became the breeding ground for leaders over the years.
One person appointed himself as Membership Chairman and devised a poster
campaign for promoting TGB among senior centers. Others helped developed
a member's photo montage web site and a chain-letter e-mail to be used
as a type of bulletin board that circulates among the membership.
Expanding the membership and seeking out new pathways for participants
to interact with each other tend to be two common initiatives during the
early stages of a group's development. This is true for all groups, but
especially so in cyberspace. Because the internet itself is a multifaceted
communication medium, groups that form there have at their disposal a
variety of techniques for communicating with each other and spreading
the word about the group. Leaders early in the group's development often
tackle these communication challenges.
How Does This Work?
How does the
communication
infrastructure
influence the
dynamics of
the group?
|
An online group may use a variety of strategies to encourage
communication among its members and thereby establish group cohesion,
the most basic methods being web sites, e-mail lists, private e-mail,
newsgroups, chat, telephone contacts, hardcopy communications, and in-person
meetings. Each method has its pros and cons. Combining different strategies
tends to synergistically cancel out the limitations while maximizing the
strength of the group. Most online organizations develop in the direction
of expanding their interactions into new domains. Over the course of its
early history, TGB demonstrated this broadening of communication channels,
becoming more interactive each step along the way. The internet as a information
and social medium tends to become more and more thoroughly integrated
into the fabric of the group. At the same time, the group extends it reaches
into the hardcopy and in-person realms.
Web Site- TGB's web site serves a variety of functions. It provides
information and announcements about the group. It recruits and registers
new members. Kernell also uses it to gather resources for TGB, as evident
in the online humor competitions in which visitors to the site were encouraged
to send in jokes and stories (often material they found on the internet).
Daily E-mails - As Kernell gathered more humorous material from
his members as well as from his own internet searches, it occurred to
him that he could bundle the material together, edit it, and send it out
daily as a membership feature. Thus, "From The Geezer Brigade's Humor
HQ: The Best of the Best for 12/31/98" (etc.) was born. Sent to members
every morning, it generated tremendous membership response as well as
many humorous return e-mails from which Kernell borrowed material (giving
credit to the creators). The daily e-mail publications and the members'
e-mail responses created a positive feedback loop.
Membership Roster: - In her list of principles for establishing
a successful online community, Amy Jo Kim (www.naima.com) mentions the
importance of creating member profiles that evolve over time. Early on,
TGB introduced a confidential membership roster, with voluntary profiles,
that is updated and circulated monthly. About half the members have contributed
short profiles. The roster allows members to quickly make new friends
in other parts of North America with similar interests, and it also implicitly
announces the expanding membership - and hence the success - of the group.
Making the roster confidential also instills a feeling of status and belonging
among those who receive it. Kernell noted that "when a popular member,
whose humor has been featured in both the daily e-mails and the printed
newsletter, went in for cancer treatment, his online friends rallied around
in ways that moved him greatly each time he read their e-mails of support."
Private e-mail among members is an extremely important, complex, yet often
hidden, infrastructure that allows more intimate bonding between people.
Usually (but not always), it increases the cohesion of the whole group.
Integration with Hardcopy - The internet is a powerful communication
tool, but so are hardcopy publications. Integrating the two is a synergistically
powerful combination that helps overcome the disadvantages of either approach.
Online resources can be extended into print, and print resources can be
incorporated online. TGB circulates a monthly printed newsletter, The
Brigadier. Kernell also bundled up some of the material from one of the
monthly humor contests and sent it to Dear Abby, where it was published
with the comment "In case you're wondering what Seniors are doing with
their time these days..." It was seen by 20,000,000 people, Kernell noted,
"and gave us a legitimacy and exposure we would have never been able to
achieve otherwise." After the Dear Abby article appeared, Kernell queried
the membership and asked them whom they might invite to be their first
Comedian in Residence. The votes for Phyllis Diller led the pack, with
Rodney Dangerfield in second place. Using the internet, Kernell tracked
down her agent and pitched the idea. Delighted with TGB, Diller agreed
to have the group use material from her book "The Joys of Aging...and
How to Avoid Them" in their newsletter. Later Kernell came across a cartoon
by Peter Mueller depicting a combative Senior with a punk hairdo, a pierced
nose and grunge clothing, saying to a startled "straight" young onlooker,
"What are you looking at?" For Kernell, it perfectly expressed The Geezer
Creed. After tracking down Mueller via the internet, he arranged a deal
to reuse some of Mueller's published cartoons in the newsletter.
Membership Feedback - No organization can thrive without feedback
from its members. Denying people the opportunity to contribute ideas and
opinions leads to a top-down or outright monarchical style of running
the group. It also shuts down the opportunity for new and creative ideas.
Kernell did a postage pre-paid mail-back satisfaction survey in June of
1998, that was enclosed with the monthly printed newsletter. A majority
of the membership responded favorably.
Real Time Chat - A later addition to TGB was a weekly Saturday
chat meeting, moderating by Kernell. The one hour meetings are scheduled
as opportunities to discuss a topic-for-the-week, but often the gathering
simply becomes a time to hang out together. The meeting is private - and
password protected - which eliminates the annoyance of unpleasant intruders
and programmed commercial advertisements that tend to plague the senior
chat rooms of large online networks, like AOL. Real time ("synchronous")
encounters online create a different atmosphere than e-mail lists and
newsgroups. The sense of "presence" of others is more palpable, and it's
a sign of commitment for people to be online at the same location at the
same time. Making the meeting a private, closed-group session can enhance
the identity and boundary of the group. If an online group succeeds in
maintaining ongoing chat sessions, it's both a sign of group cohesion
as well as a force that perpetuates group cohesion. Introducing chat was
a significant developmental step for TGB. It provided the first opportunity
for the members to meet together as a group. Kernell noted that people
have come to feel close and personally vulnerable to other members whom
they have yet to meet in-person.
Chain E-mail - As of the writing of this article, TGB did not
include an e-mail list (listserv), which can be a valuable format for
online group interaction. However, Kernell did mention plans for "the
world's first Rotating Bulletin Board" - an e-mail chain letter with members'
opinions on set topics added each time the e-mail is forwarded. A unique
combination of e-mail and newsgroup formats, the Rotating Bulletin Board
concept did pose some problems: In what order should it pass through the
membership? What if someone in the chain failed to pass the message along?
Kernell hoped that asking people to sign up for Bulletin Board might increase
the sense of responsibility for keeping the chain messages going. The
enthusiasm many members showed for the idea revealed their desire for
collaborative group activity.
In-Person Gatherings - Online groups can be fascinating and valuable,
but they are not a substitute for in-person encounters. When people develop
meaningful relationships in cyberspace, they inevitably want and need
to meet in-person. It helps to seal the relationship and make it seem
more "real." In-person meetings can in turn solidify the relationship.
Similar to online chat - but packing an even more powerful punch - in-person
group meetings both indicates group cohesion and commitment as well as
fortifies group cohesion and commitment. "Because we are bound together
by humor and our Seniority," Kernell noted, "when I hosted a lunch for
13 local members here in Charleston, I was struck by how quickly and how
satisfyingly we connected, establishing within a hour or so an easy camaraderie
based on our online experience of the online organization we all belonged
to." The people who regularly attend in-person (and online) meetings tend
to become the influential, stable core of the group.
What We Believe
How does the
group's ideology
shape the group
and address the
needs of its
members?
|
The communication infrastructure provides the vehicle for
the group's existence, but it's the group's ideology that gives it a unique
identity and purpose. To understand this dimension of TGB, I started off
my e-mail interview with Kernell by asking a question that required him
to type very little, but hopefully think a lot. "If you could only pick
THREE WORDS to capture what the Geezer Brigade is all about, what would
those three words be?" Later that day, his response came back:
Humor.
Recognition.
Belonging.
The membership satisfaction survey revealed that the humor was far and
away the number one appeal of TGB. It is the kind of wry, self-deprecating
humor that Phyllis Diller expresses about her age. The daily e-mail, for
example, may be peppered with one-liners like "Some minds are like concrete:
thoroughly mixed up and permanently set" or "It's frustrating when you
know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions any
more." At the same time, the humor is filled with feistiness and spunk.
It demonstrates the adventuresome, curious, and self-aware attitude of
TGB. Kernell said:
I believe that humor is empowering to Seniors. It is also
salutary. If you go watch Patch Adams, the new Robin Williams movie,
the whole premise of the movie is that humor is a powerful tool in the
hands of a physician.... I think because TGB is run by a 65-year-old
semi-retired geezer that the humor we share in the daily e-mails, monthly
newsletter, and weekly chats has a special feel to it that is more readily
understood and appreciated by other Seniors, almost as if we were an
ethnic minority that shared a special language or dialect. We APPRECIATE
each other in special ways that are not so present in very heterogeneous
online groups.
The Geezer philosophy of continuing to be feisty and adventurous
perfectly suits the group for using the internet as a vehicle for meeting,
since the internet is the "new frontier." There is a pioneering spirit
among TGB. Rather than forging streams and crossing mountains, TGB people
are buying modems and setting out into cyberspace. Although there are
other online groups for seniors, Kernell sees the TGB as different, unique.
He finds the other groups to be rather bland, predictable, and tending
to follow the "make nice" and "go along to get along" philosophy. TGB
has a more pugnacious mission, as evident in the term "Brigade":
I think we ARE a minority among Seniors and a good and useful
one. There is a tendency to "go along" as we age, both at work and at
home. Some people end up as "Seniors" having somehow lost entirely their
capacity for genuineness, having compromised away their connection to
their "real selves" in an effort to be accepted. They have fixed themselves
to gain approval and, in the process, LOST their Selves. Their humor
is predictable, strained and not terribly funny. Their laughter is automatic
and is hard for Geezers to be around. We are not Seniors, Golden Agers,
Third Agers, etc. We are GEEZERS. This implies feistiness, spunk, a
sparkle in the eyes, aliveness, even eccentricity. We make trouble,
in a good way, by refusing to be categorized, pigeonholed or predictable.
We're still struggling to grow and find ourselves. Our motto is "Do
not go gentle into that good night!" Obviously, I'm communicating a
very clear 'us' and 'them' situation, perhaps because I'm so terrified
of becoming like how I perceive them to be.
A group's ideology has a therapeutic impact on its members
(Suler, 1964). Simply having a belief system creates structure and meaning
to overcome the anxiety associated uncertainty. A philosophy of self-expression
and altruism reinforces identity and self-esteem. Most importantly, the
particular, unique aspects of a given group's ideology point to needs
within the members that are being addressed by that ideology. For TGB,
the feisty, pugnacious Geezer philosophy serves as a kind of cognitive
antidote that counteracts the social, psychological, and emotional problems
associated with age and the inevitability of death.
Recognition and Belonging
A fascinating, powerful outcome of the internet is the opportunity it
offers for anyone with a computer and modem to have a voice, to be recognized.
Anyone can publish a web page that says anything you want it to say. Anyone
can express their opinion in a public arena without your "real world"
status or appearance being a significant factor in whether people listen.
This kind of recognition is part of the appeal of TGB. Geezers have their
say. They are recognized as Geezers, as unique people ("I'm over 55! I'm
96!"). On a much more basic level, they are recognized as people. Kernell
noted how a very effective advertisement in the 1930s was a small national
magazine ad in the 30s that said: "$1.00: Get Mail." Lonely older folks
who wanted something in their mailboxes every day sent in their dollar
- a lot of money in those days - and the entrepreneur who thought up the
ad put their names on the mailing lists of commercial enterprises and
those making free offers. The daily e-mails of TGB address a similar need,
except the mail is personalized to the psychological and emotional mindset
of the members, and it integrates feedback from the members. The daily
e-mails also use a "blind carbon" so each recipient sees only his/her
own address as the destination. Kernell anticipates what the recipients
might think, "This e-mail is specifically addressed to me! I am still
important enough to get mail every day." Kernell puts his effort into
making the e-mails as funny, offbeat and senior-friendly as possible.
"A number of members said how much they appreciated being able to get
up, go to their computer and get a laugh to start the day."
Above and beyond simply being recognized, TGB gives its members the opportunity
to be involved, to BELONG. This is valuable to retired seniors whose work
and social circles may have become narrowed - and especially valuable
to "Geezers" who, in their in-person life, may have difficulty finding
like-minded Geezers. "I like the total concept of old codgers such as
myself having a cyber club by which we can share and exchange," one member
stated in the satisfaction survey. "FRIENDS," said another, "are without
doubt the most interesting and important result of my Brigade membership,
both sexes, altho' at my age: especially women friends." Thanks to the
internet, the circle of friends are available 24 hours a day, and keeps
expanding in interesting and challenging ways. Some benefit from that
feeling of recognition and belonging even though they are not online.
One semi-retired comic in the midwest delights in seeing his original
humor published in The Brigadier.
Some psychological research has been critical of the internet. The findings
suggest that online relationships draw people away from or thwart the
development of in-person relationships - resulting in an "addiction" to
the easy, superficial relationships of cyberspace, increased loneliness,
and depression. I asked Kernell if this might be an issue for the people
of TGB. Might they be especially vulnerable to this problem given the
fact that they are seniors? Or might just the opposite be true? Kernell
did admit that intimacy is at times a bit too easy, that it requires less
effort that in-person intimacy. The friendships sometimes feel great but
don't genuinely run deep. But he also added this:
For younger people, making new friends in the real world is
relatively easy, depending on one's capacity. A big pool of possibilities...
For older people, I don't think it's quite so easy. Maybe we SHOULD
try harder, but we don't. We miss the people our age we used to know
and we aren't particularly interested in getting to know younger people
in any more than a casual, superficial way. Their issues don't seem
to be our issues. And they seem to pretty ageist in their attitudes.
So, we are ALREADY a bit lonely and depressed. Instead of becoming more
so, online relationships with peers seem delightful and as easy to establish
as those available to young people in the real world. The Internet is
a RESOURCE.
Where We've Been, Where
We're Going
What developmental
stages does the group
go through?
|
All groups - online and in-person - will pass through various
stages in the course of their history. According to some theories, those
stages are predictable: (1) "norming" (the group establishes goals and
basic rules for behaving), (2) "conforming" (harmony and affection, an
emphasis on similarities, members try hard to get along and avoid conflict);
(3) "storming" (conflicts arise over differences of opinion and leadership
struggles); and, (4) "performing" (the group accepts diversity of opinion,
learns how to deal with conflict, and becomes flexible in achieving its
goals). As a fairly young group, developmentally speaking, TGB probably
falls somewhere between the first and second stages. For a group that
values feistiness and devalues the "go along to get along" philosophy,
it will be interesting to see how it maneuvers the conforming versus storming
stages. Some people, who have observed these kinds of patterns in the
history of online groups, believe early stages
marked by advertising and recruiting eventually lead to either a stagnant
atmosphere where newcomers are rejected, or a mature group in which diversity
is embraced.
In my e-mail interview with Kernell, it became clear that milestones in
the history of TGB also involved the expansion of group interactivity.
In the earliest stage, TGB mostly involved the distribution of the daily
e-mails and the monthly newsletter. These publications were the anchor
that united all members and encouraged one-on-one encounters among them.
Then, the introduction of the Saturday chat program marked a qualitative
change towards members interacting with members as a group. Kernell's
plans for the future involve building on this interactivity - in part
by boosting membership (the recruiting stage), expanding the chat program,
and launching the Rotating Bulletin Board. Creating an e-mail list (listserv)
would be another powerful alternative for enhancing group interactions,
cohesion, and identity. Compared to in-person groups, online groups may
be unique in how the extent and formats for group interactivity serve
as developmental benchmarks.
The developmental progress of an online group may be measured by how well
it addresses the criteria for creating a successful
online community - especially Amy Jo Kim's nine basic principles. TGB
clearly has addressed 1,3 , and 6, and has begun to tackle 2,4, 7, and
9.
1. Define the purpose of the community
2. Create distinct gathering places
3. Create member profiles that evolve over time
4. Promote effective leadership
5. Define a clear-yet-flexible code of conduct
6. Organize and promote cyclic events
7. Provide a range of roles that couple power with responsibility
8. Facilitate member-created subgroups
9. Integrate the online environment with the "real" world
Some Methodological Footnotes
Look at the group
with a variety of
research methods.
|
In this article I've focused mostly on studying the various
features of the online group itself. Also important are the METHODS used
to carry out that study. Here, with TGB, I've relied mostly on my interview
with John Kernell, comparing the results with what I've discovered in
my other work online, particularly my ongoing study of Palace.
Other options include in-depth interviews with group members (e.g., my
article on the Palace wizards) and quantitative
surveys of members, including those that may have been carried out by
the group itself, as in TGB's satisfaction survey. Field observations
also are very valuable - especially my favorite variation of field research,
"participant-observation." You join the group,
and as a member, try to juggle an objective analysis of the group with
the evaluation of your own subjective reactions..... In the case of TGB,
I'll have to wait awhile in order to employ this tactic. :-)
See also in The Psychology of Cyberspace:
Unique groups in cyberspace
Therapy and support groups in cyberspace
Social psychology of online groups and communities
Developmental stages of mailing lists
Making virtual communities work
See also in hardcopy (available upon
request)
Suler, J.R. (1984). The role of ideology in self-help groups. Social Policy,
14, 29-36.
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