The Problem With Online Communities...
What happens when digital replaces IRL: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter #79
I work in digital marketing for a living. A big part of that is dealing with online communities.
And let me tell you: Online communities during pandemics are weird things.
For a whole bunch of reasons that we all know and I don’t need to get into, traditional IRL gathering places are taking a secondary role to online these days. When we’re socializing with friends, family and strangers, it’s just as likely (or more likely, in pandemic time!) to be over Instagram or in a text message chain than at someone’s house or at the bar. I mean, we’re relying on Reddit to navigate the unemployment system.
Online communities take a whole bunch of different forms these days. Facebook groups shared around common interests (Neighborhood Facebook groups, Facebook groups for fandoms of media properties). Twitter subcultures (Journalist Twitter, scientist Twitter, academia Twitter, weird Twitter). Nextdoor groups. Subreddits. People following the same Instagram accounts. Clubhouse rooms.
But all of them pr…
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