What Community Do We Need, "When Everyone is Gone to the Moon"?

Streets full of people, all alone

Roads full of houses, never home

A church full of singing, out of tune

Everyone's gone to the moon

Eyes full of sorrow, never wet

Hands full of money, all in debt

Sun coming out in the middle of June

Everyone's gone to the moon

- from Nina Simone's "Everyone's gone to the Moon", originally by Johnathan King

Two things triggered me to ponder on this topic this couple of days,

1. My husband told me that Apple is going to release the new ipad today. (Whether if it is real, I don't know, and it's irrelevant.)
2. I listened to Nina Simone's "Everyone's gone to the Moon" this morning on my walk, and replayed it over and over. The song was written by Johnathan King in 1965, but it feels so intimately familiar to me 50 years later.

A subway station in Tokyo (by Michelle Li)

Young people at a dinning table (source online, author unknown)

One truth to be admitted: The internet world is here, the internet generation is here, and the internet lifestyle is here. I personally is someone who is resistant of change - I resist the dependency on the internet, and yet, I have several social network memberships. The sociology part of me tells me not to judge. Any kind of social change should be put into perspective and evaluated in a natural, objective and validating manner. Therefore, here I am, thinking about this question:

When people are dedicated in bonding virtually online, what should a traditional community do?

I live this new information network lifestyle: reaching out to my cellphone to check my social networks is one of the first three things I do when I wake up in the morning (text message included), sharing pictures of special "moments" with my social network is the first thing comes to my mind when they occur, texting my husband from another room when I want to be funny or feel too lazy to talk. I don't watch news on TV, I do not hand-write letters, and I do not feel sad about not having blood family member in this country (well, sometimes I do feel sad about that). I do not care if I get to know my neighbors, as long as there is internet connection in my place. Online, I belong to communities; well, on earth, I live in a community, but I know no one.

Social network diagram (source online, author unknown)

I start to think today, how would this social change affect our profession, when people are mostly physically present and mentally absence? What is, and where is our reality any more? How much does it matter, when we try to make our neighborhoods nice, or recreate car-free community, if people are not going to enjoy wholeheartedly? What is our attitude towards this social and lifestyle change, critical, resistant, ignoring or the opposite? From a utilitarian point of view, what is the most efficient way to build our community in the information era?

This should be an interdisciplinary conversation, and it requires us to be open-minded and forward thinking. I propose a few scenarios that perhaps will evoke further thinking along this line, just as they do to myself. I also believe, in this topic, questions are more important than the answers.

Is virtual community a brand new invention in our times?
Is the virtue community networking new and unique to the current times, or historically, people engage in social communities in a similar fashion, but in a different way? I assume the internet technology makes it easier to access this virtual type of bonding, so more people are able to do it.

Is "living in the cloud" constructive or destructive?
You will ask, in what sense? We can think about in any sense. But what concerns the most to our profession as community making is the sociology sense: is people being mentally occupied constructive or destructive to the conventional sense of social bond (face-to-face interaction), sense of family and community, and sense of place? Is there a new born or alternative social bonding mechanism that we community makers should be aware of, to make our products work for the future?

What does "living in the moment" mean anymore?
Where is what people see as the reality, at home, in the neighborhood, online, in the newspaper, hourly updated facebook status? People adopt their social identity through their perception of reality. The rise of social network certainly change people's way of thinking, perceiving, behavior and lifestyle. As people are prone to be drawn by sensual pleasures (pleasure of sense from what we see, hear, smell, eat, etc.) and instant gratification, it takes certain kind of audience for our delicately designed community for it to be appreciated. This certain kind of audience are those who are conscious about the physical environment, face-to-face human interactions, authentic experience, and deeper sense of being that does not come instantly (meaningful relationships, sense of community, and contribution to feel belong, etc.).

Lower level "on the earth", and higher level "on the cloud"?
To the younger generation, who grow up in the electronic technology world, are trained to have, at least part of, their sense of belonging online/remotely/virtually. It brings the question, do people compartmentalize where do they meet their needs on different hierarchical levels, according to Maslow's five hierarchies of human needs? Does a traditional neighborhood serve as a bedroom community where people takes care their basic level of needs, and find their sense of individualism and highly personalized belonging online?

Maslow's five hierarchies of human needs.

How much does geography factors matter any more?

World wide internet and advanced speedy transportation makes globalization possible, which continue to shape our new life in the liquid modern times (according to Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish Sociologist, we have moved away from a 'heavy' and 'solid', hardware-focused modernity to a 'light' and 'liquid', software-based modernity. See his book "Liquid Modernity", 2003). How much does geography matter any more? We would say for certain life tasks it has become irrelevant, but for some activities, we still need to do in person and we need geographic proximate. But the border between the two keeps moving towards the direction of geographic distance matters less and less as people are able to take care of things online more and more. For example, we thought we need to go out to meet someone. Guess what? We date online and get married. In our community, do we still need shopping center, when we can buy everything online? Do we care if we live close to work, since we can work from home? Do we care if our favorite restaurants are in our community, if there's Chef Shuttle? It sounds like Nike's motto "Nothing is Impossible!" However, if we settle down for a second and think, what is good for us may not be what we can do (by stretching our abilities), but what is good to our well-being. Granted, we can finish a challenge of "stay in your apartment alone for one month," but is that truly good for you? I propose that making livable community is not about becoming cutting edge and meet people's unsettled needs and trends, but we should truly care about the well-being of the people. In some sense, we guide people how to live life.

Chef Shuttle in Central Arkansas

Where are you? 
What is your lifestyle today, pro-technology or anti-technology, or not very conscious about it? How do you see yourself will be living 30 years from now? How do you see your children or grandchildren live their life when they are at your age? And how do you hope they live?



The "virtual living" era is here. Which part of it is just a trend and will eventually reverse to "normal", and which part is a true social change that we community makers should be aware of and do some advanced thinking? Let's talk.