Given the abundant evidence of the psychological, relational, and epistemological costs of our increasingly online society, we believe that organizations and non-profits, such as ours, have the opportunity and obligation to act as leaders in the trend away from relying upon social media for validation of impact and organizational effectiveness. This may seem inconvenient and impossible given that our work relies upon a certain degree of public support and acknowledgement, but with artificial intelligence and algorithmically-dictated social media platforms making it increasingly difficult to determine what is in fact true, or real, for that matter, we feel it’s our ethical responsibility as we work to advance human-animal coexistence to think carefully about how we engage online and for what purpose. Furthermore, as an organization committed to extreme efficiency in how we expend resources, we’ve also thought deeply about whether it’s worth investing donor dollars into communications operations that are directly feeding into this dilemma. As a consequence, while we will still maintain a limited presence on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, much of our communication about the impact of our work will come to you via email, directly from our CEO (who does not use social media), which is why we strongly encourage you to subscribe to our mailing list.

If you have questions about our communications philosophy, or suggestions for how we can address this dilemma more effectively, please feel free to share them with us.