We’re Still About Community
Millions of pages have probably been written about one core human experience: building and fostering community. Before we had fancy communication mediums, we built fires and drew stories on cave walls. With the birth of radio and television, we congregated around our favorite programs and shows. Community was generated in our aptly-named ‘living’ rooms, around our radio and television sets. I can still recall coming to school following the latest episode of Dawson’s Creek: discussion time was deemed necessary. At the time, the show fueled the community that my girlfriends and I created.
Then came the birth of social networking–a virtual way for us to build a community beyond our home, and our hometown. Suddenly, we were able to discuss television shows, music, movies, books and relationships with people that we only sort of vaguely knew. We called them our ‘friends,’ but really they were only acquaintances, and distant ones at that. Through Friendster, MySpace and Facebook, we were able to share our local experiences with people that may have cared about them were able to provide feedback.
Most recently, our community building experience has forged into new territory: the process of building communities with people that we do not know at all. People that live very different lives from us, in states and countries that we may never visit. The process isn’t new: some of us may recall the phenomenon of pen pals–correspondence relationships with people that we had never met or knew. Pen pal chains were often created in grade school and junior high, when random people would become connected through their interests and begin corresponding. The idea of exchanging happenings in your daily lives, sharing book and movie recommendations and venting about problems with friends and relatives with a stranger is still just as prevalent today, if not more so.
These days, niche social networks allow us to make connections with people strictly on the basis of our interests, and community building mediums have opened our eyes to groups of people that are often beyond closed doors. In the case of Iran’s current revolution, the community of protesters is weaving a powerful web, both literally and figuratively, with the outside world.
Our mediums may have changed, but our inherent need for building a community with other people–whether they’re family, friends, or strangers, remains ever the same.
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dominic