Great article, Sasha!
I enjoyed visiting Meetup’s corporate office as well and was surprised by the size of the staff that took up two entire floors. After researching the Meetup opportunities in New York City and choosing to join one this week, (Vegetarian Food Festival Meetup), the staff size is now making more sense. I had no idea there were so many options! Meetup has over 25 million members and 243,294 Meetup groups in 180 countries! At this very moment there are over 4000 Meetup groups going on.
I also love Meetup’s core value of “DIO” (as opposed to DIY) that says we’re more powerful together — that’s community — the heart of social journalism!
Social capital theory began in the 1990’s and assumed that face-to-face social interaction was essential for developing trust. Televison and other electronic media were viewed at the time as having a negative impact on the development of social capital. When reality tv became popular, I had concerns (and still do) that people were spending more time focused on watching the lives of others than living their own. Because human beings are social creatures, we usually manage to find ways to connect with one another — thus, the explosion of social media.
A 2012 nationally represented study, “Internet, television and social capital: the effect of ‘screen time’ on social capital” challenges the idea that television and the internet have a negative impact on social capital. The study results show that watching television is either unrelated or negatively related to social capital indicators, and it suggests that “internet-based activities clearly play a positive role in the development of social capital despite the lack of in-person interaction.” Concluding discussion recommended further research to “tease out causal mechanisms in the production of social capital in the digital age.” Digital media appears to have provided more opportunities for social connection, especially when you consider how easy it is to have a conversation with people from all over the world, something previously impossible for many.
We had an interesting and thought-provoking class discussion about social capital. Members of my community say they often feel disconnected and alone in their search for health solutions, particularly when they have lost hope in traditional medicine. Face-to-face communication is not always practical— social media has opened up a world of new possibilities for my community by allowing them to collaborate and support one another. I plan to engage with my community through multiple social media platforms to learn more about what they need, and to help them become better organized and more resourceful in resolving issues within the community.
