Lexico defines community as “a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common”. To that I’d like to add that a community is also a group of people who share a common future. Throughout our lifetime, we participate in many different types of communities, enriching various facets of our lives and identities.
Benefits / importance
In societies that emphasize individualism, a sense of community is sometimes a neglected or unexplored part of life. Instead of partaking in group activities, people “trade friendships for footages” or bowl alone. In fact, communities are more important than many modern people would think. Below are the main benefits of communities:
- Communities gives individuals a safety net. When individual members are in need, they can tap into this network for help. To quote my friend Ali: “when you take care of your neighbors, you also take care of yourself.”
- Communities help us fend off loneliness at difficult times. For instance, games such as Animal Crossing kept us connected during Covid lockdown. Danes, on the other hand, sing together in a communal morning ritual called Morgensang “for the feeling of togetherness and solidarity it fosters, especially during challenging times,” reports writer Karen Gardiner.
- Even casual, “weak-tie” friendships can “boost happiness, knowledge and a sense of belonging,” according to writer Ian Leslie.
- Community activities such as exercising or playing with others, lending a help hand, even gossiping increase feel-good chemical endorphins and improve our overall health, Be Brain Fit suggests. See tips about exercising in Self > Body Hacking > Exercising.
- Communities extend individuals to powerful networks and give us social capital. Size of community reflects how well-adjusted and well-to-do a person is in their communities. Well-connected people can have larger-than-life influence on society, as exemplified in the occupation “influencer”. On the contrary, those who are anti-social, stressed-out, or living in unstable societies tend to have smaller communities.
- Community building increases social trust, which increase our resilience as a society during trying times. In 2020, for example, different walks of life in Denmark stepped up to help the community get through the Covid pandemic, writer Karen Gardiner notes.
- Lastly, communities teaches us how to deliberate, collaborate and resolve conflicts — all the skills that are crucial in a robust society and a healthy democracy.
Drawbacks / limits
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt states that “morality binds and blinds”. This is true of communities as well (in fact, he argues in The Righteous Mind 📖 that morality actually derives partially from community needs). Below are some drawbacks / limitations of communities:
- Communities form tribes that divide up “us” vs. “them”, leading us to social biases, discrimination, and toxic tribal infighting. Football fans who have physical brawls after matches is one example.
- Communities can spread negative things such as obesity, smoking, negative emotions and germs, according to ▶️ research done by physician Nicolas Christakis, but he also proposes we study social networks as a way to make the world a better place.
- When we are too immersed in a community, wanting its complete acceptance and approval, we might be led to do self-detrimental, even anti-social behaviors. Cults are notorious examples — Heaven’s Gate members who committed massive suicide belonged to a very tight-knit community. The lesson learnt is to not let abusive communities dominate our lives.
Virtual communities
The Internet offers us virtual communities that are unique to the 21st century. Through social networks, for example, we connect with people we don’t otherwise meet, regardless of their physical location. Not only we can keep track of friends, lovers and family who scatter around the globe, we also get to talk with celebrities or become celebrities ourselves through viral acts. However, the original promise of the World Wide Web, where access to information is decentralized and freedom of expression is open to everyone, is polluted by online bickering, big tech money-making and political propaganda, making the web a dark place to be at times.
Virtual communities such as social media also take us away from meeting IRL — in real life. To balance the down sides of spending too much time online, especially when Metaverse is upcoming, 21st century people need to make an extra effort to build offline, physical communities.
Living together in the real world
Our World in Data predicts that by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas — that’s close to 7 billion people, or almost the entire population of today. To ensure acceptable living standard in such a crowded urban future, it is clear that we need to build better cities and local neighborhoods. Below are a few urban trends to watch out for.
To avoid having a mega city where people are disconnected and isolated, it is important to think global and act local. Digital revolution has everyone glued to the screen but Covid has reminded everyone the significance of connecting to local communities and nature. In Religion for Atheists 📖, philosopher Alain de Botton proposes that we can learn from religion on community-building through enjoying meals, music, art, nature and many more in groups. We can also learn from Okinawans, who “attribute longevity to ‘moai’, a local traditional of group support [that] pool funds for public work, or to help members in need.” [2:20], reports ▶️ BBC Reel.
In the past decades, cities around the globe have become very expensive to live in and as a result, a great number of urbanites are priced out of the city. With more people living or moving into the city of the future, the Atlantic suggests that people with a stake or equity in the city such as teachers and cleaners get subsidized, so they are not forced to choose between having children or living in the cities where the work is.
With populations aging in most developed countries, we also see trends where older homeowners share their homes with younger renters — so the younger generation can afford reasonable rent and the older generation enjoys companionship and occasional help from the young.
In recent years people, especially in the U.S., also try to address the high crime rate in inner cities not with more policing force, but better social support for the vulnerable. Proponents, such as writer Rachel Fairbank, maintain that “[m]any of the issues police deal with, such as mental health crises or homelessness, could be better handled through a mixture of social services and community-based organizations. Meanwhile, many people — including minorities and victims of domestic violence or sexual assault — are reluctant to seek help from police. How we spend our money matters, and for every dollar we spend on a heavily militarized police force, with officers rarely being held accountable for their acts of violence, that’s one less dollar that can be spent on programs that offer meaningful help”.
Finally, future cities engage their citizens to co-design their neighborhood and public spaces, making sure that city planning not only caters to the government and the developers but also to local residents’ needs. Enfield, an England town, for example, provides a platform for citizens to discuss ways to improve the town from cycling to town center design. For another example, “Cooperative Capital lets people pool small amounts of money, vote on how they want to invest it to improve their neighborhood–and then generates returns,” reports writer Adele Peters. See more discussion about civic participation in D3: Deliberative Direct Democracy.
Read about other relationships in the 21st century:
- Self
- Romance / Sex
- Family
- Friends
- School
- Work
- Communities
- Social status
- Consumer groups / Economies
- Political Systems
- Memes / Ideologies / Religions
- Humanity
- Environment / World
- Universe / Beyond Our Universe
Do you have any suggestions, doubts, hypothesis or experience for this topic? Please comment below 👇!
