Community can be defined as a body of people who live in the same place, usually sharing a common cultural or ethnic identity. Hence: a place where a particular body of people lives. Another definition is a group of people who share the same interests, pursuits, or occupation, esp. when distinct from those of the society in which they live (“community, n”). Historically a community reflected that of the first definition, friends and neighbors working together to keep their town functioning and together. They built community by working to have safer neighborhoods, healthier kids and families, better preserved cultural traditions, and more profitable businesses (Briggs). Modern technology and global fears have morphed communities into not only the physical but the virtual as well. Community …show more content…
More and more people define community as a group with similar likes and interests: technology and media have made it easy. Though with such interconnectedness fear also permeates. Violence, hate, and injustices are readily at our fingertips and information is quick to our eyes. Charlotte Fabiansson discussed how a young person’s feeling of being unsafe stems from the global information and mass media rather than local experiences (42). These fears can cause individuals to entrench themselves into the familiar, then fear and exclude groups with different ideas, culture, or traditions. This can cause isolation and for members of society to form relationships in online communities with more similarities, such as online gaming guilds, Facebook groups, or activist groups. These communities have caused many to lose a sense of physical community, as in the neighbors next door. Xavier de Souza Briggs points out that a focus on community building should be to improve quality of life and social justice (Briggs). Fearing those different from us and always staring at a screen and not interacting with those physically around us, doesn’t seem to be improving quality of life or social