Your journalist perspective or, maybe better put, public and mass media perspective on community is really valuable.
I do think that the yearning for “community” that seems to be growing in strength (possibly as a reaction against the technological failures in connection) is not actually a new thing. Community has been discovered, displayed, and healthily practiced throughout human civilization.
A communication theory that stems from the work of Marshall McLuhan, social psychology, and sociology brought forth a working definition of community as:
- Shared History
- Permanence
- Proximity
- Shared Imagination
I’ve given more depth to these pieces here: “The 4 Defining Ingredients to Community”.
The implication is that we might not have to “discover” what it means to have community, but simply re-cover it. With technology this will be tricky, if not impossible if we attempt to capture a historical essence of community. It may mean that social media & technology can only act as supplements to community — something sites like Facebook, if they claim they actually are interested in this, will need to think through in defining their role in the process. It wouldn’t be great for the bottom line, though.
With this in mind, what you said about “the joining of individuals” is right on. Social Media platforms could leverage that, pair it with supplementing the larger dynamic of “community”, and help reverse the trend we are seeing with technology.
Again, I’m grateful you are continuing this conversation and that you have added some real value to an area of said conversation that, not only is rarely discussed, but will be increasingly important based on the direction Facebook has disclosed. Thank you Jeff.
