Look at My Face, Not at Your Screen

In our individualistic or liberal society, we must take steps to to cultivate happiness and a sense of community, or we will not be able to flourish. While we still need to respect our individuals, an important way to do this would be to limit social media and create weekly town or district meetings in order to get people face to face again.

In our world, we have two major types of societies, that both have positives and negatives for the people within them. The two major types of societies are liberals, or individualistic, and communitarians that focus on society. Focusing more on our very liberal and individualistic society in the western hemisphere, we regard the individual as higher than the society. Having a liberal society can be very positive because it allows people to be their own person and allows for cultural pluralism to thrive. In America, we can be considered the “melting pot of the world” as we have many different cultures and customs wherever you travel to within the country. In New York City, someone may take you to a Broadway play for entertainment, whereas in Louisiana, someone may take you duck hunting for entertainment. However, there are aspects of the communitarian life that could certainly benefit us. We cannot possibly cultivate positive regard or flourish at all without community contact. One of the major problems found in our society is that people feel alone and isolated because they don’t feel as though they belong anywhere and those who they are connected to, simply use them and do not include them. People are too busy being concerned with their lives and what is only good for them, to see or remember that there are other people they can connect with. This is why it is so important for us to take positives steps in creating a sense of community while still respecting the individuals and their individual interest.

In order to create a sense of community, one of the first steps our society should take is to limit social media use. Social media can be a positive aspect of our lives for it gives us a creative outlet to share all about our lives and “connect” with others. It allows us to share our lives with our “friends” and talk to people even halfway around the world. However, people are spending too much time on social media and not enough time connecting with their neighbors, like they used to. As of 2013, people on computers spent an average of 6 hours a month on Facebook and people on mobile devices spent an average of 11 hours a month. Surely even one of these hours could have been spent in a much positive way. In order to get people off of their computers or mobile devices and in front of other people again, there should be a limit on the amount of social media one can interact with a day. The website Tumblr has taken steps towards this, without too much backlash from its users. They have placed a “post limit” on the amount of content one can post and a “dashboard limit” that only allows you to scroll down so far on your dashboard (a.k.a. homepage, like the Facebook newsfeed). Facebook or Twitter could try to do something to this affect by creating a “post limit” for how many times you can post a day and a “newsfeed limit” to stop you from scrolling more than 24 hours in the past. While not extreme changes, they are still positive steps in the way of creating a community. If social media websites were to implement something like this, it would stop users from spending so much time in front of a screen and place them back in front of people, face to face. This isn’t the only step that needs to be taken though. Once you have people off social media, people then need something to do with the community in order to truly cultivate that sense of community.

The second step that our society needs to take in order to create a sense of community is to have weekly town or district meetings for people to meet and talk to one another. Each city or town would be split into much smaller sections, where people from that split section would meet and talk to one another for an hour a week, for a whole month. Within that months’ time, people can break off into smaller groups to talk about the things that concern them or things they are passionate about. They get the opportunity to share whatever they’d like and others will actively listen. People will listen because they will want people to listen to them as well. They get the same respect that they give to others. Once the month is through, the districts will then switch half of their members with another district, so more people in the town and city can meet together four an hour every week. This would eventually lead to all of the people in the town meeting and talking at least once, which will allow for a greater sense of community. These meetings will be effective because people can still be individuals by sharing their own experiences and opinions, but feel more appreciated and included because people will listen. These meetings will give people access to easier face to face communication which will help people reach out to one another outside of the meetings. Belonging to a group gives us a sense of identity. People will be able to feel like they identify with the people of their community, after talking and empathizing with one another. People are also much happier when they are with others. These meetings will give people something to look forward to and they won’t feel alone or isolated any more. This will also help the idea to spread. One example of an idea like this working in real life is the recent rise in “atheist churches.” The idea started with two British comedians and the idea took off. People began meeting in small communities in the UK, but now the idea has taken off globally. These churches whose motto is “Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More,” grabbed the attention of those who desperately missed the community that a church would give them, but who did not believe in a religion anymore. While their conversations are a little more one-sided and structured, this example shows that people really do want a place to gather as a community and to share positive messages. In conclusion, having weekly meetings for the town will give people opportunities to share their individuality while helping them feel as a member of the community.

While being a member of a liberal society has many positives, one of the major drawbacks is not feeling like a part of a community, which is essential for flourishing. Two ways this can change though is limiting social media use and getting people talking face to face again through weekly district meetings. Overall, people will still be able to express themselves and share their lives, but in a more community centered forum that makes them feel less isolated, more involved, and ultimately much happier.

By Flickr User: vastateparksstaff

By Wikimedia Commons user: Enoc vt