And Then We Were 255...

Wandering the wilderness of No Laptop Land, sometimes the only way I had to keep my spirits buoyant was checking the membership of the Facebook group for the Belonging campaign. So I was a little put out early into that nightmare when I was advised not to divulge the number of members in the group to prospective producers in my submissions.

Why?

Because anything less than 100 did not count when talking of online group figures, I was assured. Membership was in the 60s for the Belonging campaign at the time. I saw where the advice-giver was going...

• Lady Gaga commands (if twitterholic.com is to be believed) a following of more than 8, 9 MILLION on Twitter, statistics dwarfing Obama with his humbler 7, 1 million followers who dropped  from pole position, down three places, to N# 4.

• And recent youtube sensation, Rebecca Black boasts an enviable (yes, I am only human) 29 MILLION hits for her song 'Friday'... whatever her critics say! 

Success seems to only come in MILLIONS in cyberspace!

And good for all the above! But all these started from 1, 2, 3... 10... even if only in their first second/ minute or hour... And yes, even Charlie Sheen with his Guiness World Record breaking feat of  becoming the fastest person to reach 1 million followers on Twitter. They all had to start somewhere... So 67 counted for me. As did the 50 something before it, the 40 something before that and every other (for want of a better expression) ‘lesser’ number before arriving at that. But I was conscious of a pressure (that I really didn’t need at that point) to get the numbers rising.

Going into the 80s, 90s- regardless of whether pundits deemed the head count noteworthy or not- was growth. When we reached 103, I distinctly remember suppressing the surge of excitement in case some left the group and we would be back in the 90s. As we pushed through the 180s, I suppose there was an element of smug satisfaction...Where we hadn’t before, now we ‘counted’.

And then- before I knew it- we were at 255! OMG! (as the techno generation’s lingo goes) The incredible feeling any support will inspire then multiply that by the 254 standing with me for my dream for Belonging as of this morning and you will get an idea of how good I am feeling. So good that I have decided to put up a Member Metre on the blog (left column). So we can keep track of the group's growth from here, ponder on it and enjoy it together.