Why Is Connection Important for Ending Factory Farming?
Why is connection important?
The whole mission of Connect For Animals is based on the idea that by connecting people together, we will end factory farming faster and help countless animals. But how exactly does connection help?
First, connection keeps people motivated and in the movement. Most animal suffering is "out of sight, out of mind." If none of your friends or family or colleagues ever talk about animal issues, how often are you going to think about these issues? Slowly, you may stop thinking about animals—and you may stop advocating for them—and you may drift away completely from the movement for animals. Connection plugs up this leak by keeping people engaged and by keeping animals in the conversation. More people means more impact.
Second, connection increases the flow of information. If you didn't have this email, would you know about all of the events below? Probably not; it's hard work finding all of these events. If people aren't connected, information can't flow—so people can't hear about events, organizations, jobs, impact opportunities, and so on. Without connection, you don't know that half a mile away there lives a person who cares about animals who would be a great collaborator for you. Connection helps information flow so that the right people hear about the right things and meet the right people. (Innovation also requires sharing information and ideas.)
Third and finally, connection is how social movements create change. Social movements are nothing but people taking action with resources to create change. To get resources and take action, you need people coordinating with each other—you need a well-connected movement. And creating change means influencing the broader social network and understanding where in that network to focus your efforts. In short, every piece of a social movement is related to connection.
These connection-focused impacts are often indirect, long-term, and hard to measure—but the evidence for the benefit of well-connected networks is overwhelming. By connecting people, resources, and information together, we end factory farming faster.
