Imagine if Americans invented America Appreciation Day – a day for Americans to appreciate themselves?
Would the rest of the world have a positive reaction?
That doesn’t mean American doesn’t have appreciation days. The 4th July and Thanksgiving prove there’s no shortage of days to appreciate what’s great about the USA.
So why aren’t these days embarressing?
Crucially these dates have a narrative that taps into the collective memory of the group. The dates themselves have context and the rituals understandable attributes. The people being appreciated are those that helped make the current world possible
Next month Community Management Appreciation Day is coming up. It’s an arbitrary day, with arbitrary activities, to commemorative community managers appreciating themselves.
I think we can apply a little social science and do much better.
What if we picked a day of relevance (how about the launch of the first online community?), embraced activities which fit the narrative of the day (how about we spend some time in the oldest online community?), and appreciated those that pioneered this field so long ago – not ourselves?