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The sense of community is gone. And it really takes a village to raise a child but that’s disappeared in the US outside of small rural communities.

hbosch 8y ago
No, sense of community is actually stronger than ever I think. But those communities are less geographic and much more ideological. The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity. Social media made it so, and this shifted sense of community has given rise to increasingly radical and extreme ideologies — but also much stronger bonds in my opinion.
- jmoss20 8y ago
  That's a slightly different sense of community though -- there are things that local (geographically) communities can provide that online communities simply can't. Some of those things are probably pretty important.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - hbosch 8y ago
    This is an important conversation, but being on HN I cannot resist... > there are things that local (geographically) communities can provide that online communities simply can't Identify this delta! It may just be the seed to the next big social network. :)
    - gthtjtkt 8y ago
      You've never heard of Meetup.com?
- bitxbit 8y ago
  I understand what you mean but you still have to raise your child irl. What is very interesting is that most adults with children in this decade have experienced both worlds and perhaps become too immersed in this new “virtual” environment. In the process, we might be short changing our kids. I imagine a lot of parents feel this way.
  - hbosch 8y ago
    The absolute futurist-cynic inside me wants to reply, badly, to this statement: > you still have to raise your child irl. with the fact that increasingly I see children being strolled around with tablets mounted in front of their faces, by parents with phones in front of their faces. Imagine these strollers were self-guided, say, they were monitored and could tram children around the park while they played on their pacifying devices! I feel we aren't too far off. DJI could certainly make quite a nice stroller, I would imagine. I recently had a baby, and we had to fend off MANY attempts to gift us battery (or plug) powered baby seats -- and still we ended up with a mamaRoo[0] in our closet because my mother wouldn't take "no" for an answer. This is a device where you can strap your newborn in (!) and the chair will rock her for you, play gentle music either via the onboard memory or via Bluetooth, to soothe or quiet your baby for you. Behold the truly dystopian image on their product page[1]. Our thinking was that we wanted to keep responsibility of this task for ourselves, along with the stress, thank-you-very-much, because we wanted to experience it and we wanted our baby to experience it -- physically. But still! There are emporiums, I came to learn, full of these types of gadgets that are designed to offload the burden of parenting. With the sheer momentum of technology and the absolute hijacking of our attention spans, I can all-too-vividly imagine a world not far from now where raising your child can happen almost entirely by "remote". I fear this, of course, but I can imagine it. __ 0. https://www.4moms.com/mamaroo https://www.4moms.com/mamaroo 1. https://www.4moms.com/assets/mamaroo/ultimate_seat-602c8d008221fa8e53df2c907586d943.jpg https://www.4moms.com/assets/mamaroo/ultimate_seat-602c8d008...
    - kehunt 8y ago
      It's tempting and easy (for the fortunate) to buy a Thing or and App to occupy their kids so they can have our own device time. STEM apps are educational; guilt-free, no harm. Right? But device time is robbing our children of the trials and frustrations and educational opportunities provided by the dirty, analog, political, unfair, painful and tangible-risk REAL world. When I was growing up there was a declared difference between those with an academic education and a "street" education. Now it seems the difference is between the virtual social landscape and reality.
- abledon 8y ago
  "The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity" Ideas & Beliefs aren't gonna change a stinky Diaper. Or Drive over to your house and take care of your kid for an evening when you are _BEAT_ down by life and need a break.
- gthtjtkt 8y ago
  > But those communities are less geographic and much more ideological. The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity. If your sense of "community" is so warped that you honestly believe this then I feel sorry for you. What you're describing isn't a community at all, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to have something in common.
  - okmokmz 8y ago
    >What you're describing isn't a community at all, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to have something in common. If your sense of "community" is so warped that you honestly believe this then I feel sorry for you. A community absolutely does not need to be geographically close in order to qualify as a community. Here's one of the definitions of community: "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals." There are countless support groups, academic groups, professional and hobbyist networks, and other virtual communication platforms and meeting places that host communities of people that have never met in person.

hbosch 8y ago

No, sense of community is actually stronger than ever I think. But those communities are less geographic and much more ideological. The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity. Social media made it so, and this shifted sense of community has given rise to increasingly radical and extreme ideologies — but also much stronger bonds in my opinion.

jmoss20 8y ago
That's a slightly different sense of community though -- there are things that local (geographically) communities can provide that online communities simply can't. Some of those things are probably pretty important.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- hbosch 8y ago
  This is an important conversation, but being on HN I cannot resist... > there are things that local (geographically) communities can provide that online communities simply can't Identify this delta! It may just be the seed to the next big social network. :)
  - gthtjtkt 8y ago
    You've never heard of Meetup.com?
bitxbit 8y ago
I understand what you mean but you still have to raise your child irl. What is very interesting is that most adults with children in this decade have experienced both worlds and perhaps become too immersed in this new “virtual” environment. In the process, we might be short changing our kids. I imagine a lot of parents feel this way.
- hbosch 8y ago
  The absolute futurist-cynic inside me wants to reply, badly, to this statement: > you still have to raise your child irl. with the fact that increasingly I see children being strolled around with tablets mounted in front of their faces, by parents with phones in front of their faces. Imagine these strollers were self-guided, say, they were monitored and could tram children around the park while they played on their pacifying devices! I feel we aren't too far off. DJI could certainly make quite a nice stroller, I would imagine. I recently had a baby, and we had to fend off MANY attempts to gift us battery (or plug) powered baby seats -- and still we ended up with a mamaRoo[0] in our closet because my mother wouldn't take "no" for an answer. This is a device where you can strap your newborn in (!) and the chair will rock her for you, play gentle music either via the onboard memory or via Bluetooth, to soothe or quiet your baby for you. Behold the truly dystopian image on their product page[1]. Our thinking was that we wanted to keep responsibility of this task for ourselves, along with the stress, thank-you-very-much, because we wanted to experience it and we wanted our baby to experience it -- physically. But still! There are emporiums, I came to learn, full of these types of gadgets that are designed to offload the burden of parenting. With the sheer momentum of technology and the absolute hijacking of our attention spans, I can all-too-vividly imagine a world not far from now where raising your child can happen almost entirely by "remote". I fear this, of course, but I can imagine it. __ 0. https://www.4moms.com/mamaroo https://www.4moms.com/mamaroo 1. https://www.4moms.com/assets/mamaroo/ultimate_seat-602c8d008221fa8e53df2c907586d943.jpg https://www.4moms.com/assets/mamaroo/ultimate_seat-602c8d008...
  - kehunt 8y ago
    It's tempting and easy (for the fortunate) to buy a Thing or and App to occupy their kids so they can have our own device time. STEM apps are educational; guilt-free, no harm. Right? But device time is robbing our children of the trials and frustrations and educational opportunities provided by the dirty, analog, political, unfair, painful and tangible-risk REAL world. When I was growing up there was a declared difference between those with an academic education and a "street" education. Now it seems the difference is between the virtual social landscape and reality.
abledon 8y ago
"The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity" Ideas & Beliefs aren't gonna change a stinky Diaper. Or Drive over to your house and take care of your kid for an evening when you are _BEAT_ down by life and need a break.
gthtjtkt 8y ago
> But those communities are less geographic and much more ideological. The communal bond these days happens more in ideas and beliefs than in physical proximity. If your sense of "community" is so warped that you honestly believe this then I feel sorry for you. What you're describing isn't a community at all, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to have something in common.
- okmokmz 8y ago
  >What you're describing isn't a community at all, it's a bunch of strangers who happen to have something in common. If your sense of "community" is so warped that you honestly believe this then I feel sorry for you. A community absolutely does not need to be geographically close in order to qualify as a community. Here's one of the definitions of community: "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals." There are countless support groups, academic groups, professional and hobbyist networks, and other virtual communication platforms and meeting places that host communities of people that have never met in person.