The beautiful chaos of the Social List

The Fletcher student Social List has received periodic blog attention over the years, but it’s worth re-introducing for newer readers. Jessica has previously called it the “virtual glue for the community,” a description upon which I really can’t improve, although I’d elaborate that the functional ingredients of that glue are Social List as soapbox, marketplace (of ideas, goods, and services), bulletin board, classifieds, catchment for arbitrary musings, and general collective id of the Fletcher student body. A bustling e-list available to any member of the Fletcher community, the Social List can arrive as a constant ping of individual items on your device (and I do mean constant) or, for those bent on trying to impose order upon raw, teeming chaos, in daily digest form.

As the semester really gets going in earnest, we’ve seen a corresponding uptick in Social List activity. Lots of books solicited and for sale, course recommendations from returning students, intel regarding events and professional opportunities throughout the greater Boston area, student group announcements, and one post that I think sums up the thematic continuum of the Social List marvelously:

“Fantasy Football League and support higher education in Nicaragua”

Let it never be said that Fletcher students are not expert multi-taskers! There’s so much delightful Social List-based activity throughout the academic year that I’ll plan to return to it from time to time on this blog. And the next time I need a spare Advil, advice on DIY bike repair, a one-person tent, or information on the challenges of CO2 sequestration projects in emerging economies, I’ll know where to turn.