Trans Iowa Stories; Social Media Effects

T.I.v2- No social media. GT in the rain coat. Jeff Kerkove in the blue coat. Image credit Unknown

"Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post which helps tell the stories behind the event. You can check out other posts about this subject by going back to earlier Sunday posts on this blog. Thanks and enjoy!

Social media had a massive effect on Trans Iowa and my relationship with this facet of our current-day society, as it affected Trans Iowa, was a rocky one. That said, Trans Iowa spanned the time between eras. When we started in 2005 Twitter and Facebook weren't a thing. When we started, getting good, reliable cell phone coverage in Iowa was not a given. In fact, it was not possible. The main way people communicated socially then was via blogs and on chat forums and sites that hosted them.

This had the effect of making riders basically disappear for the duration of a Trans Iowa. It's pretty much unimaginable now. I mean, can you even consider riding any event without a GPS computer, a working cell phone, your pocket camera/cell phone camera, Strava, Facebook, or Twitter and Instagram? You would have had no choice to do it any other way than with none of those things in 2005/2006 at Trans Iowa.

Of course, some may remember that during T.I.v2 I did a "Trans Iowa Radio" , audio-post thing, mostly as a joke, and a way to entertain myself in the lonelier times. However; I was unaware that this was an important, first step in social media. Immediate, fresh information was gobbled up by folks hungry for instant gratification. I did not take the thing seriously at all, and for that I was roundly chastised afterword by folks related to riders and by riders themselves in some instances. 

With the change for T.I.v9 to having "Trans Iowa Radio" hosted by Mountain Bike Radio/Riding Gravel, the onus on myself to be the information conduit was taken away. So, although this opened the floodgates for more social media contact, which was not good in my opinion, it did get me off the hook in terms of expectations by outsiders to provide a 'play-by-play' info stream for Trans Iowa. But there was a lot of pressure to open up the event to being covered even more in terms of social media.  

This raised some big red flags in my mind, and the whole thing became a grind to try to control until there just was no point in it anymore. Every year after 2007, Trans Iowa became less and less of the event I wanted it to be from an experiential point of view for the riders.

 T.Iv14., Social media was fully entrenched into the event. Image by Celeste Mathias

Am I saying that these earlier Trans Iowa events were 'more pure'? No, I am saying they were more where I wanted to take Trans Iowa, but that was made impossible by the whims of the times and the effects of technology. Well, unless I took Draconian actions to rid the event of social media altogether. In my mind's eye, the whole social media thing waters down what Trans Iowa was supposed to be. That's a complicated story, and I may not ever really get around to telling that, to be honest. Not in a way that would satisfy me, and certainly not in a way that wouldn't ruffle some feathers, and in the end, who cares anymore? 

Trans Iowa was good, maybe even excellent, regardless. It obviously made an impact if I still am hearing about it two years post the last one I put on. I figured it would be a distant memory by this point in history. And maybe it will still get to be just that.....

I suppose telling you what I might do "IF" I ever did another Trans Iowa-like event might point out where I am at with regard to all the social media things. Okay, one thing for sure- It would not be like the Trans Iowa. This would be a fresh start. Given my perspective looking back and from what I have learned, I would make this new event even smaller. Riders would sign non-disclosure agreements. I would supply wired computers for all participants which would be calibrated and installed the evening before the event. I might have chip tracking, but it would be private, and only for my uses.  I would ban cell phones, GPS, and cameras. (Yes- really) AND the event would maybe be 40-50 people MAX. Probably less. No photographers. No film crews. Cues would be handed out at the start line, and when you finished- if you finished- there would be nothing. No handshake, just me tallying the results, and you'd go home.

That's the experience you cannot get anymore at any gravel event anywhere. Sounds stupid today, doesn't it? Think about what things were like in the last century. (If you are old enough to have memories reaching that far back) The experience was yours. It wasn't goaded on by social media or anything outside of yourself. (Well, maybe not - I have no idea what lurks inside of your head and soul) You would have awesome stories to share orally or to write down afterward. This started to go away during Trans Iowa's middle years when people had good enough cell service that they could call wives, mothers, brothers, boyfriends, and the like to get cheered up in the dank darkness of an Iowa rural night. It was when all the 'likes', the feedback from social media posts, started to play a role.

Social media inherently made a big difference, (I would argue that it made it easier and less meaningful), to some of the Trans Iowa participants, but most don't know anything different. How can you blame them? I don't. I just feel these folks got cheated out of something I did get to experience several times. To be honest, sometimes that pisses me off. Sometimes I am incredibly saddened by these thoughts. But that's my perspective and not anyone else may feel that way. I get that. But I'm trying to be honest about the social media thing here. That's how I feel, especially when it comes to Trans Iowa.

And again- I knew it was impossible to keep it out. I went along with a lot of the social media stuff because I knew that. That said, I'm free to say what I really think about these things now, because now it doesn't matter. Trans Iowa is done. How it all went down was probably as good as it could have been given the way I did things. And I'm okay with that. 

Next: Getting back to some stories about the ninth version of Trans Iowa.