Agree. Not every hobby and common trait is automatically a “community” nor should it be.
The tiny house community The pickleball community The eating ass community
etc.
Comment on The internet connects people
aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I don’t understand how anyone thinks any social media platform resembles a community.
mctoasterson@reddthat.com 5 months ago
aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 5 months ago
You’re currently posting in one…
aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yeah but that doesn’t mean I think it’s a “community” that I am “joining”.
Certainly by some definition of the word you can call these things communities just because that’s how language works. Using “community” in this way is so pervasive I laughingly recall a tech bro watch company calling the people that buy their watches a “community”.
But from the meaning of the word before the rise of social media, social media platforms and the loosely structured groups underneath that you “form” by “joining” (AKA sometimes just looking at a video or web page or something) them definitely don’t resemble nor replace a community.
The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 5 months ago
…I guess you aren’t going to want any of these welcome cookies that we baked for you then. =(
aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 months ago
😆
Akasazh@feddit.nl 5 months ago
One of us
LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
That’s a fair take I think.
Would you say smaller forums where people largely know each other are communities then? IRC? Discord?
Because I struggle to think what else could or has ever fit such a strict definition.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Probably not, but they’re at least closer. Real communities provide you care, support, relief from loneliness, a sense of purpose, etc. etc. etc.
It’s possible for some to find tiny nuggets of these benefits in even the worst online “communities”, but by and large it’s does not exactly scratch the same itches that your grandma’s sewing circle or bridge club used to.
It’s difficult to reason about because if you’re anywhere close to my age group (old ass millenial) online “communities” appeared and replaced existing physical communities across the country (I’m speaking in US terms). We’re now basically as lonely as we’ve ever been as a country, and I think it’s at least partially related to us going inside and screen timing it up for a number of decades on these platforms where “the community” is a bunch of strangers angrily typing messages to you through the Internet.
I find it no small coincidence that loneliness in America skyrocketed even as people became more active on social media. It points at the exact lack of benefit you get out of these “communities” that you used to get out of the old type.