Geeks Vs Loneliness: let’s be excellent to each other

Hello, and welcome to Geeks Vs Loneliness. Regular readers will likely know that it’s the spot on the site where we talk about things that may be affecting you, or people around you. Likewise, that not every article is going to help every person, but that’s not going to stop us at least trying. Hopefully, over the course of this series, you’ve found something that’s of use.

Since Geeks Vs Loneliness started in May 2015 – with this article on sleep – we’ve used this part of the site to cover all sorts of topics, from the smallest of moments that just feel wrong, to the feeling of just completely having had enough.

What I want to talk about this week, if you’ll indulge me, is the sheer humanity that had shone through in the reader comments ever since. That you fine people took the baton, and have often gone out of your way to support people in comments, to spread the word about articles that are of use. In doing so, I hope people have found use, have found help, and found support.

Because human beings on the internet often get a bad rap. You don’t need me to tell you that there’s no shortage of hate, of nastiness and of bile to be found online. That people hide behind anonymity to spread poison, for reasons best known to them.

But the flip side of that is there is, in my view, an even greater number of people who are fundamentally good. Who use technology to spread warmth, niceness, and the better side of humanity. These are the people who get drowned out, and I don’t think they deserve to be.

I’ve said this a few times on Den Of Geek, and I’ll say it here again: Bill and Ted got it right. The whole idea of “be excellent to each other”. It’s a tricky ideal to aim for, and not everybody – myself included – always gets it right. I think it’s far better to aim for that and miss, than not try at all. How about, then, we try it? Have a day where we try and show the internet in all its goodness? Maybe leave a nice comment on something you like (don’t worry, doesn’t have to be this site!). Retweet a good cause. Send an email to someone you haven’t contacted for a while. Let’s spread the idea of being excellent. That, ultimately, is what you’ve all taught me over the course of my time with Geeks Vs Loneliness.

This, then, is my farewell article from Den Of Geek, eleven and a half years after my first. Geeks Vs Loneliness is the thing I’m proudest of, and I know it’s in good hands going forward. The warmth and wonderfulness of you human beings has been an utter inspiration, and I can’t thank you enough. I’ll be quietly slipping out of the back door over the next few days, but hope you don’t mind me saying a huge thank you here for all the support you’ve given Geeks Vs Loneliness over the 150+ articles and counting, and please continue to do so. Any way we can help find someone a smile has to be worth it, right?

This, then, is Simon (and you can find me on Twitter here), the last surviving member of the Den Of Geek launch team signing off. Thanks, as always, for reading. Stay brilliant. And be excellent to each other. x