Comment on The internet connects people

aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• aodhsishaj@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  You’re currently posting in one…

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  • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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    • The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      …I guess you aren’t going to want any of these welcome cookies that we baked for you then. =(

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      • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        😆

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    • Akasazh@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      One of us

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    • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ 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.

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      • aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Would you say smaller forums where people largely know each other are communities then? IRC? Discord?

        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.

        Because I struggle to think what else could or has ever fit such a strict definition.

        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.

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• mctoasterson@reddthat.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  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.

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