Re:The rise of fear-based social media like Nextdoor, Citize...
by ryandrake on Thursday May 09, 2019 @07:11PM
(#19873409)
In this thread people are scared to open their doors when someone knocks. In the other thread people are scared to knock on their neighbor’s door. How did this society become so irrationally terrified of everything? I know people who won’t let their kids outside because they think crime is everywhere. This is in a firmly middle class single family home Leave It To Beaver neighborhood.
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Re:The rise of fear-based social media like Nextdoor, Citize...
by standardUser on Thursday May 09, 2019 @07:54PM
(#19873708)
Communication technology has changed everything. We expect to be communicated with first in ways that have a minimal impact on our time and personal space, like text, email or a messaging system. We can handle those communications if and when we deem fit.
Someone calling on the phone or knocking on the door is someone demanding immediate and exclusive use of my time for reasons only they know. In the case of a door, they are also asking for access to my home (to a degree).
The fact that the vast majority of those calls and knocks are for sales, religion or politics make us rightly avoidant. And sure, some can even be dangerous. But almost none of them are people we actually want to communicate with. Those people would have already called/texted/emailed. If they called, we'd recognize their number. If they were coming over, they'd give us advance warning.
So the folks left surprising us are the folks we are least likely to want to engage with.