The phrase that the world is a village is often used when you have friends all over the world. It’s easy to travel. As musician you are touring around the world, or you are dreaming about touring around the world.
In a social sense, the world is a village too. You are connected with colleagues, friends and family, wherever they are. You share your background and your believes with them. But do you know people with a different background, with different believes? Whats-app and Facebook keep you in a bubble of like-minded. The algorithms are build to show you stuff that you will like. The people you meet fit within the social picture of yourself, your colleagues, friends and family. Even if you travel around the world, your life is happening in a social-village-bubble.
Living in a social-village-bubble, your world can become as closed and as hidebound as a small village. I grew up in a small village and had to break out of the conventions. Moving to other places is not enough, unless you start socializing with people from different backgrounds, people with different believes.
Once you dare to leave your comfort zone by reaching out to people you usually wouldn’t meet, it gets really interesting. Nothing is more inspiring than break out of your social-village-bubble. I did so by volunteering to work with homeless people when moving to a big city, by learning theater lighting when moving to another country. Dutch blues guitarist Joep Pelt did so by moving to Mali, to discover the rich blues tradition of Mali.
What do you do in order to break out of your social-village-bubble?