Gather Round the Digital Campfire: Stories in the Age of Screens

Close your eyes and imagine the year is 20,000 BC. The sun has gone down. The world is pitch black and full of sounds—wolves howling, wind blowing through the trees. It is cold. It is scary.

But there is a light.

In the center of the village, there is a fire. Orange flames dance and crackle. The heat pushes back the cold. The light pushes back the darkness.

And around that fire, people are sitting. They are safe. They are eating together. And most importantly, they are Telling Stories.

"Today I saw a mammoth!" says one hunter. "Once upon a time, the moon fell in love with the ocean," says an elder.

Humans are the Storytelling Animal. It is how we survive. It is how we teach our children. It is how we bond.

The New Fire

Fast forward to today.

We don't sit around wood fires much anymore (unless we are camping!). But we still crave that circle. We still crave the light in the darkness.

So we built new campfires.

The screen of your phone? That is a campfire. The glow of your laptop? That is a campfire.

When you log onto a Discord server, or a Reddit thread, or a group chat, you are sitting in the circle. You are gathering with your tribe.

Some people say, "Digital friends aren't real friends."

I say: Nonsense.

Is the laughter real? Yes. Is the support real? Yes. Is the shared story real? Yes.

The Warmth of Connection

The internet can be a cold place. It can be full of trolls and bots. It can feel like the dark forest outside the village.

But we have the power to build warm places.

At Orb21, we try to build Digital Campfires. Places where:

• Everyone is welcome. It doesn't matter where you live or what you look like. If you come to the fire, you are family.
• We share wisdom. "How did you defeat that level?" "How did you fix that bug?" We teach each other.
• We protect each other. If a wolf (a bully) comes, we stand together.

The Responsibility of the Storyteller

In the old days, the Storyteller was a very important job. They kept the history of the tribe.

Today, You are the Storyteller.

When you post a video, you are telling a story. When you write a comment, you are adding a line to the story.

What kind of story are you telling?

Are you telling a tragedy? "Everything sucks, everyone is mean." Or are you telling an epic adventure? "Look at this cool thing we built! Look at how we helped each other!"

Your words matter. Your words are the logs that keep the fire burning.

Don't Let the Fire Go Out

It is easy to get isolated. It is easy to sit alone in your room and doom-scroll. That is like sitting in the cold forest by yourself.

Come to the fire.

Find a community that loves what you love. Whether it's coding, or knitting, or Minecraft, or space.

Introduce yourself. "Hi, I'm new here."

Ask a question. Share a joke.

You will feel the warmth. You will realize that even though we are miles apart, sitting in front of glowing glass screens, we are still just humans, huddling together against the dark, telling each other stories about the stars.