Gal Beckerman mentions Hannah Arendt's metaphor of the table, as that which pulls people together. Social media technologies haven't been very good at this. Hannah Arendt: > “The weirdness of this situation resembles a spiritualistic séance where a number of people gathered around a table might suddenly, through some magic trick, see the table vanish from their midst, so that two persons sitting opposite each other were no longer separated but also would be entirely unrelated to each other by anything tangible.” And Mia Birdsong, in [[Reference Notes/How We Show Up]], writes about literal and metaphorical tables: > Saqib, Jocelyn, and Sita show me that we can truly welcome people to our literal and metaphoric tables while also insisting they have good table manners. Good manners is not about being polite. It’s about gratitude and recognition of all that led to us being at the table. It’s about sharing in the labor of making the table a place for all of us to be seen and accepted. And when we transgress—when we offend, neglect, or fail to show up well—we must clean up our mess by being accountable and working to do better next time. We can expect people’s presence and also expect of them behavior that contributes to everyone’s sense of welcome and belonging.