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1.That our sense of community has
diminished in the twentieth century
In this context, the word "sense" means "being a part of". We her the word "community"
used a lot these days for what in essence are special interest or lobby groups, for
example the ethnic, Greek or Serb community. The arts community, the gay community, the
school community, the Islamic or Jewish community. However I am interpreting the word
"community" true to the dictionary definition as "a society of people living together in
the same district". In other words a sense of community is when people really feel they
belong to and are part of their neighbourhood.
Soapies such as the British Eastenders and Australian's Home and Way depict a sense of
community. These fictious people have a sense of comradeship towards each other in times
of happiness, grief and need. The togetherness which these TV communites fees is the
backbone of their TV society and is what holds these TV people together.
However, in real life this sense of community is near dead. This bond that people have
use to have is slowly dissolving as technology advances, crime rates increase and the
extended family becomes obsolete. As our society heads into the future the soul and
essence of our communities will have faded into the past. A blend of social trends is
leading us to a virtual hermit's lifestyle. The mass flight of people from the small
rural communities moving to big and impersonal cities, the advent of depersonalizing
technology at home and work, the fear of crime turning homes into fortresses and people
always moving due to family breakdowns and searching for jobs have all played major
roles in our sense of community diminishing.
It wasn't long ago that people made friends with the mailman, the milkman or the
butcher.
But today, such community intimacy seems part of the past. In a culture where we can
pull money from a machine and never interact with a human bank teller, enter a crowded
subway without meeting each other's eyes, and call telephone assistance only to get
information from a computerized voice. it is truly possible to be alone in a crowd.
Society wants the old neighborhood back. We lost it years ago with housing that allowed
us to drive our car into the driveway, hit the remote button that raises the garage door
on our attached garage, park and walk right into our fortress of a home. No time spent
outside, no greeting the neighbours.
The information revolution has taken off at an alarming rate leaving many people behind.
However there are still more and more people becoming computer literate and this
influences our lives in a very dramatic way. Many people are locking themselves behind
closed doors and spending hours upon hours fiddling with the family's PC. It is the
future generation that is becoming more and more reclusive. The children of the
twentieth century are not experiencing the support and warmth that a close knit society
provides. Our communities are becoming more detached and disjointed as technology
advances.
Everyday we hear about home invasions and paedophiles. Many children with working
mothers come home to n empty house and turn off the security system. They stay inside,
behind locked doors, scared to go out into the street or local park to play for fear of
being molested or abducted. The freedom lifestyle and trust of the past has gone and
with it our sense of community.
It used to be that there were set meal times and family games of monopoly, and games of
neighbourhood tennis and gatherings of the whole extended family at the beach. But now
there has been a collapse in the family unit which affects the way a community
functions. It is similar to the dominos effect. Once the nuclear family component of our
communities begins to disintegrate it will alter the function of the extended family.
People are no longer having big Christmas banquets with all the cousins, aunts, uncles
and other various relatives but smaller and more intimate gatherings. Families of the
twentieth century are beginning to keep more and more to themselves. This in turn
transforms the types of relationship people have with their neighbours. Eventually all
connections crumble and our community's spirit diminishes.
Children who once would have spent their daylight hours outdoors and playing, now spend
them in front of a screen, murdering aliens with special weapons or pestering strangers
in other hemispheres. These children are being brought up in society that does not
encourage interaction with other children in the neighbourhood. There has been a break
down within our communities and as a result neighbourhood friendships that once lasted a
lifetime are now reduced to superficial aquaintances.
Blood loyalties use to be strong, and there was always a favourite, forgiving aunty you
could pour your heart out to, then sleep the night on her couch. Neighbours were like
aunties and were even called aunty. If your parents weren't there, you could always go
next door and you surrogate aunty would feed you and chat to you. Unfortunately those
times have disappeared taking with them our sense of community.
And so, there is little doubt that our sense of community has diminished and that this
is not for the good of society. Human beings are social creatures - this is what makes
us fundamentally different to robots and computers. We should care about and interact
with and be part of our neighbourhood.
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