If you’re trying to be a part of the TCK community, it can sometimes be hard to find, if you don’t know where to look! Even I, a child of the technological age, struggled to find this community online.
A great place to start is Twitter. I know, if you’re not really a Twitter person, I just asked you to dig through an unfathomable large portion of the internet. I’m sorry. I used to hate Twitter, I thought it was noisy and strange. Of course, I thought it was mostly for following celebrities and other useless things. But, the good thing about Twitter, is you only follow what you want to see, which means, if you really hate it, you could choose to only follow the TCK community.
On Twitter, some great people/handles to follow are @lifeoftck @seachangementor @bateconsult @tckid @crossingculture @thetckproject @RDvanreken @at_mvp @TCKglobaltweets and of course shamelessly @TCKayRambles. It’s a small starting list of ten, and if you want to listen in just a bit, this is a great start.
If you really want to participate in the TCK community on twitter, and you want to communicate and share experiences, then #TCKchat is where it’s at. TCKchat is a hash tag that starts a conversation with a set of questions that creates a flow of conversation through the use of the hash tag. It’s a bit overwhelming and noisy at first, but it’s pretty much an addict’s fix for TCK conversation. The #TCKchat topic in April was airports, which of course started all kinds of buzz. After all, who’s more of an expert on airports than TCKs?
If you feel like you’re drowning in repatriation or, are in a place without other TCKs, #TCKchat will be your new fix for conversation with people who get it.
If you aren’t buying this whole Twitter thing, or if I’m just telling you what you already know, then I’ll move on to the blogger sphere.
The blogger sphere was another part of the internet that I let go ignored for a while, mostly because it just felt so off the beaten path. But the world of blogging is actually a fantastic community of writers.
Some notable blogs in the community include Musings of a Third Culture Kid, Third Culture Kid Life, Drie Culturen, whenyoureathirdculturekid, athirdculturelife, tckprobs. For the sake of this expanding list, I’ll also refer you to these directories from ExpatBookshop.com. And of course, if you haven’t hated my writing you could follow mine as well, TCKayRambles.
Before you freak out, some of these blogs are on Tumblr. And for that I am sorry, if you’re not a Tumblr person, it can be a terrifying place filled with fandom gifs and porn, and sometimes even fandom porn gifs, depending on the time of day. Tumblr is pretty weird. But again, with Tumblr you only have to see what you follow, be careful with the explore option, you may find more than you bargained for!
Of course there are also other sources of the TCK community online, such as online magazines like this one (culturs.guru just in case you’re fantastically lost). Another good online magazine for TCKs is Denizen magazine.
This is of course only the beginning and I have really missed a lot, partially to keep this short, and partially because I too am a total newb. So if you’re also a part of something that’s a great resource for global identities please comment your links below. I would love to check out your sites. Well, good luck getting completely sucked in by the internet with all of these new resources. Just remember to feed yourself, sleep, and stay hydrated. I know that once discovered, this online community is very addicting, but alas underwear must be changed once a day. Happy surfing!
