People just don’t talk face to face anymore. With the advent of computers and the internet, we hardly ever see one another. There are so many different types of communication out there today that we don’t even have to leave the house to buy groceries. There just isn’t a social interaction like there was many years ago. In the movies you see small towns were everyone knows one another. This is mainly because people had to actually interact with others to get what they needed. As great as technology might be, it may also be the downfall of what would be called a community.
People are just plain busy. We run around trying to maintain our association with sports, religion, school, work, and many others. With 50% of the population divorced this makes it even harder to maintain order in ones own household, let alone a community. We don’t have time to help celebrate, or mourn when the community needs a united effort. There are a few select times when people drop what is normally important and rush to one another help. This can be seen in the recent World Trade Center Terrorism attack. The whole nation came together to help and mourn those who were affected. There are types in every community, who are stereotyped as capable of having or using this type of destruction.
Jazz agers, flower children, lost generation, beatniks, rockers, punks, nerds, hackers, generation X, whatever the designation, there have always been outlaws in our society who live in pursuit of autonomy. So we can try all we want, there are always going to be a few that strive for independence. They communicate with the rest, but only for personal gain. Other issues such as acceptance and racism are slightly brought into the picture here too. Why view people as an outcast when it is only there legal right to express opinions different from those of others that set them apart from the rest of society. Accepting everyone as an equal, and realizing that everyone is a human will prevent the issue of stereotypes.
The idea of community still may fit the definition, we all share the same laws, and live in a specific geographic location, but we don’t follow the traditions anymore. The traditions of community seem to have faded of with time and technology. We don’t have to rely on each other anymore, but the ties are still there. The old traditions of community have evolved into what we see today. Community has become communication, and in the end we realize that community is not for everyone, but when times call for a community effort, you will most likely see one.
