Is the Digital World Changing Our Sense of Community?
From working as a team to hunt and gather for livelihood to segregated societies prioritizing independent living, we have come a long way. Rapid urbanization.
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Key takeaways
- From working as a team to hunt and gather for livelihood to segregated societies prioritizing independent living, we have come a long way.
- When years of social distancing had taken a toll on people’s mental health, it was through digital interactions that people stayed sane.
- None is better than the other, but it narrows down to who feels comfortable and in which community because, ultimately, a community should be a place of comfort and homeliness.
From working as a team to hunt and gather for livelihood to segregated societies prioritizing independent living, we have come a long way. Rapid urbanization without proper planning has led to a scarcity of places for people to socialize. Moreover, with time, as people have gone digital, real-life interactions have decreased. In simple words, the oral era has now changed to a scribal era. With the increasing popularity of e-commerce websites, people are more reluctant to go to markets and stores, which are major socializing touchpoints. Lifestyle is changing with work culture; after working for long hours, people prefer to rest at home rather than interact with other people, including their neighbors. However, we can see the shift from physical to online interactions wherein someone might not know about their neighbor but will talk to a person living miles or even continents apart!
Evolving Sense of Community #
Rapid urbanization leads to the hasty development of cramped residential projects that hinder social interaction, and the digital revolution seems to be the major cause of the changing sense of community. However, the literature review can expose a different reality. Robert Putnam, an American social scientist, points to the 1960s as a significant point in history when public interactions started to decline and the sense of community started changing. Putnam puts forward a long list of declining civic institutions, including informal socializing with friends, fraternal and veteran groups, religious participation, fewer family dinners, social visits, etc. But there was no internet then, so what might have led to the decline? Using data sources like the General Social Survey and time diary data, allegedly, a 10% decline had occurred due to pressures of time and the growth of dual-earner families; a further 10% decline was due to rapid urbanization and increased commuting times, and a large 25% decline was due to people giving more time to electronic entertainment. Even though he presented these data in the early 2000s, these factors of social change remain relevant even today.
The Digital Community #
Initially, a community was representative of face-to-face interactions and relationships, but in today’s era, it is not entirely true because the sense of community is changing. We see the emergence of virtual communities and peer groups through social media apes like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. Some apes like Clubhouse and Discord are catered to a particular niche of people with the same interests. The key to creating a digital community is to have a mobile or desktop platform (preferably both) that is user-friendly, smooth and engaging enough for many people to form groups or communities. Although digital communication lacks the physical touch, it enables real-time communication across geographical barriers. It allows us to know about the characteristics of a person and decide whether we want to socialize with them. Thus, the digital age of communication has opened a new window of communication where it is easier to interact with strangers too! The absence of face-to-face interaction and the growth of digital interaction shouldn’t be frowned upon, though. Recently, social media has spread and scaled up major mass mobilization events. Social support initiatives during the covid pandemic have all been fuelled by digital media. When years of social distancing had taken a toll on people’s mental health, it was through digital interactions that people stayed sane. If we try to keep our minds open to the changing times and accept the new paradigms, we can embrace the various new ways people of the same interests socialize. We have seen this during the popularity of Pokémon Go, and we will see more of such with the emerging web3 ecosystem of Metaverse. What’s online today will go virtual tomorrow, and it will be the digital experience that will fuel the “new” sense of community and relationships between people or, in virtual terms, avatars.
Community and Its Businesses #
It is hard to classify which version of socializing is correct - online or physical interactions. Although this is a very subjective topic, both communities have pros and cons, and both should co-exist for a healthy society to thrive, and none should eclipse the existence of the other. For now, since the online community is growing, it is essential to revitalize the offline community. Major touch points of such physical communities are businesses where a lot of people gather. With the advent of e-commerce and its better offerings and competitive prices, physical businesses are seeing fewer footfalls. Local community businesses, which were already hit hard during covid, are facing the brunt of it. Contests are a great way to encourage crowd interaction as well as give a push to local businesses. Local businesses have a great potential to give back to the community; if there is an event in the neighborhood, they can either sponsor the event or set up stalls. Moreover, people who have benefitted from their community and have become successful and wealthy can help these businesses through sponsorship or donations, ultimately giving back to their community.
Conclusion #
A community always has a sense of oneness and commonality, whether online or offline. Where online communities transcend borders, people from offline communities can physically be there for each other in times of need. Community building is a continuous process that will evolve and keep changing with time. Ultimately, the community stands for individuals who are there for each other, both during easier and challenging times. This sense of oneness and mutual welfare is evident in the community ventures like community radios, banks, etc. As community radios can help express a community’s concerns, so do community banks by providing better banking options to benefit the local community.
However, for socially awkward people, there are online communities wherein companies always try to create a more accepting, welcoming, and responsive user experience. Children of this generation are more attracted to the digital sphere, whereas people of the older generation prefer physical interactions. None is better than the other, but it narrows down to who feels comfortable and in which community because, ultimately, a community should be a place of comfort and homeliness.
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