The new neighborhood

We used to have Neighborhoods in this country. People who lived on the same street as you, kids played together and went to the same school, and became part of your social fabric. Some of them you liked, some of them you mildly tolerated, but you basically got along, because it was best for the Neighborhood.

In the later part of the last century, that started to change. The Neighborhood became less of a factor in many places, and strangers replaced the familiar faces in your life. Your Neighborhood moved to work, but the various periods of fiscal instability even caused that to be threatened and in many cases, shattered.

It has taken a while, but the web is finally stepping into that neighborhood role. Twitter lets you message all of your neighbors with quick updates, serving the same purpose of the old clothes line, or garden fence where people would gather to chit chat (or gossip) in that previous era. Linked In lets you talk about what you are doing at work, just like the old cocktail party down at the Jacksons or the Smiths used to do. Facebook has taken the place of the occasional multi-family picnic, where photos and stories could be shared.

I am not really looking back as to WHY this has happened, or if it is a good or a bad thing. I will point out that much of it is about choice. In the old days, I couldn’t really choose who my neighbors were. I couldn’t decide who I wanted to be associated with from a company, I just was. We all just were. Now, we can all make those choices and for the most part that is a good thing.

Speaking from my own experience, when I look at my list of 800+ Facebook friends, I realize that most of those are “virtual” neighbors, people who have I have never actually encountered. That is alarming, because it makes me realize that I need to double my efforts to  meet with others face to face and quite frankly, I am not sure I will ever be able to do so, but while it may be the most labor intensive, but it forms the deepest bonds.

That’s not saying you can’t reach people with pre-media/social media…you just have to work, just as hard as you did in the past, to truly earn them as neighbors, or…keep them as customers (for those of you who are all about business!)