Is social media killing neighbourly interaction and making cowards of us all?

[Spartacus]

It seems that social media (and sadly forums like this) are killing neighbourly interaction.

Before I start the forum has useful posts about things like "healthy streets" which galvanise groups of people to understand and work together about issues but far too often there are posts about "my neighbour has a security light" or "my neighbour has noisy kids" or even "Mrs Brown, my neighbour picks blackberry's in the nip" !

Why oh why do the ops not politely knock on their neighbours door (or post note through their letter box if they are too much of a coward to knock) and have a civil discussion.

It most probably isn't a problem your neighbour is aware off, they may actually be nice people, sympathetic and understanding and you may even (god forbid) become friends.

But all too often people hide behind a pseudo name, and post a complaint that 99% of East Dulwich isn't effected by but will give opinion on. It's like the old days when someone cried "monster" and the locals all gathered by torch light with pitchforks to drive the monster away (2012 I believe was the last time.)

In these troubled times we all need a bit of neighbourly support and community spirit so maybe rather than posting on here, go have that conversation first !

Oh and the person parking where I normally do .....

[JohnL]

Before social media we had gossips :)

There were some real ones back at home in the 70/80s - popped in and told you all the rumours - not good stuff either.

[TheCat]

YES.

[malumbu]

Whatsapp groups are for that (good neighbourly stuff), this is a place for a a proper (the full half hour). Whatsapp groups are just nice (sometimes too nice). I don't want people on this site to know exactly where I live.

[SpringTime]

Yes it is. It's causing people to become malicious, dogmatic, scared, bullied, jealous, lonely, semi-literate, unsociable, angry and so on.

The unusual thing about social media is its name - it's the most anti-social thing around.

As Zuckerberg said of social media: "Instead of building walls, we can help build bridges"

As Zuckerberg did to his own house: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/17/mark-zuckerberg-hawaii-estate-kauai-land-rights-dispute

That trumps Trump.

My name is also Spartacus by the way.

[Spartacus]

So true springtime

We give companies like facebook and twitter (other social media platforms are also available) massive insights into our lives so that they can push tailored adverts towards us whilst also allowing us to become people we aren't (look at me, I must be popular as I'm eating tofu in a steak house and 73 people I've never met like it...) or to post comments about people we've never met (or will meet in real life)

Maybe it's time to tear down the social media fiefdoms and return to good old fashioned real friendship again and remove the big companies ability to influence our lives.

When will we wake up to the fact that the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that social media was social.

[malumbu]

Can we have some clarification please? I consider community chat rooms and Whatsapp social media. Both can do a lot of good for supporting communities. As shows as you are on this discussing relevant issues.

I choose not to get very engaged with some other forms and can quite happily rage about anyone who quotes Twitter and the general dumbing down on they way we mass communicate.

[SpringTime]

Chat rooms and Whatsapp are of course more forms of social media and they can be useful (the EDF is quite good) but how useful have any other social media really been when it comes to, for example, the dreaded B-word? If you voted out or in then that's how you are; that's you, black or white, one or the other, this side or that and nothing else, full stop. It hasn't helped bridges at all - it's further divided us on a binary issue* when it actual fact we forget the truth: regardless of our politics, sex, gender, race or age, in fact most of us agree on most things in life.

It's good to turn these things off more often. I'm not on FB anymore (though they'll enable my account in one key-hit), I don't look at Instagram (no account), try to avoid Twitter (and don't have an account), and enjoy turning my phone off - good for my health. We humans got on fine without this stuff for 100,000 years and more.

Shall be looking forward to the pubs being open to be frank, and not just for the sauce. I feel strongly about a lot of the differences we have but there are real people to discuss them with. And it's often easier and more productive in the flesh.

(*Brexit has other threads)

[malumbu]

I couldn't work out how to turn some of my FB notifications off so got the e-mails sent into a separate spam folder. It's mainly people I went to school with or worked with many years ago with very different opinions to me. I find it useful to find people from time to time but then it feels a bit voyeuristic looking through their posts and pictures. LinkedIn is better in that you get less spam but get directed to some old contacts albeit generally through employment.

Changing the subject slightly watching Lewis Capaldi on a Glastonbury catch up, what a nice young man and singer he is. But fick me so many people recording it on their phones. I've yet to meet someone who does this or argues for it, but pretty common. I can choose to ignore Twitter or FB (and seen people older than me texting during a concert about nonsense) but it winds me up far more than some of the stuff being discussed here about our connected world.

[SpringTime]

With you on phones at gigs. The whole point of gigs is to enjoy the shared moment. Oh no can't do that. Must record crappy clips. Must share. Must get likes. Artists often do well to tell people to put their phones away.