Thoughts on the invisible.
In a previous post, I noted that there are some elements of a community which are invisible to other components. As I was writing, I claimed this is as it should be. And I still believe this, but Marie-Claire made a really important point in her comment.
When I made my initial comments, I was thinking of networks and individuals with different interests from one another. I suspect there is a softball league in Grand Rapids, and I suspect there has been one for decades, but it was invisible to me as an individual, and it was invisible to me in terms of the networks I was a part of. I was a news reader on a radio service for blind people for several years. This is a service which is invisible to most residents of Grand Rapids, and one which the vast majority of Grand Rapids residents wouldn’t even imagine. I’m sure there are similar things I can’t imagine. Things which add to the quality of life of the community directly, and through the interconnections of networks the individuals create by participating.
On the other hand, there are people who are invisible in a negative way. The have limited access to networks. They have limited access to the community. Some are in a category we called “shut-ins” when I was younger, and connected to a few different do-gooder networks. We’d go over and rake the lawn, and visit for a while. We were teenagers, so we didn’t do much really helpful, like run errands, get them out of the house, and so on.
Internet connectivity can help with the social needs of people who are disconnected from their community. Absolutely. However, such connectivity cannot substitute for real, live human contact. It can make it easier to get… but it can make it more difficult to vet.
And there’s a chicken-and-egg problem here. If somone is disconnected from community, how does that person get use internet access to get connected to the community? It’s a problem which has never been fully resolved. I doubt it ever will be finally resolved. I suspect that the internet doesn’t even bring us materially closer to a resolution. Here’s why. Every technology adds opportunities for connection. But the history of community growth seems to be that as communities get bigger and more complex, there are more gaps for people to fall through.
It’s better to have more opportunities for connection. There should be no doubt about that.
But opportunities for connection cannot be a substitute for emplacement in a geographic place. The connections made available contribute to a community. This cannot be denied, and I would not want to deny the contribution.
A community is made of place, people with connections of interest, and–probably most important–the human connection which goes beyond the club (dance group, softball league, work environment) which helps out, takes care of each other, and cares.
