Summary
Churches across the U.S. are grappling with dwindling attendance and financial instability, forcing many to close or sell properties.
The Diocese of Buffalo has shut down 100 parishes since the 2000s and plans to close 70 more. Nationwide, church membership has dropped from 80% in the 1940s to 45% today.
Some churches repurpose their land to survive, like Atlanta’s First United Methodist Church, which is building affordable housing.
Others, like Calcium Church in New York, make cutbacks to stay open. Leaders warn of the long-term risks of declining community and support for churches.
I think you’re a person. You should be more kind to yourself. That kind of talk never gets us anywhere.
Not on the internet. I’m a string of characters. I don’t have a face, I don’t have a voice, I don’t have a body, I am a handle and a comment tree. I cease to exist as soon as you aren’t paying attention to this comment chain. I could be a bot, you have no idea.
The internet can never be community. We are only human when we do human things. This digital space isn’t human at all.
I mean, why are you even here then? Exchanging information IS a human thing, and we’re (probably) all people behind the screens. I agree that physicality is a necessity for a 3rd space, but I disagree that it’s necessary for community.
To say that we can’t help people with our words strikes me as rather pessimistic.
I’m here for fun, not community. None of this shit matters. It’s not real.
I don’t know why I’m here. Just to get ganged up on and hurt myself.
Like this one? You think this is community? You don’t even know anyone’s names.
The internet can never be community.
Bullshit. There are millions of communities on the internet. Maybe not the kind of communities you personally want, but communities just the same. Don’t gatekeep how others interact with different social groups.
Also there are countless communities that exist both online and in meatspace. You can enjoy people in the real world, go home and resume those connections via internet with the same people. Those people don’t cease to exist when they’re not physically standing in front of you.
These are not just letters on a screen. They were put here by a human being named Kevin. I have an entire life, history, interpersonal connections, my own thoughts and feelings. Tomorrow you will likely see more things that I write along with everyone else who’s part of This community.
There are no communities on the internet, there are ephemeral places where people go to waste time. That’s it. That’s what the loneliness epidemic is. People are killing themselves because the internet is not community and it can never be one.
Have you ever wondered why people on the internet are so nasty? It’s because we can’t actually see each other as people here. Yes, you assume every commenter is a person, but your subconscious can’t see it. There’s no face, no voice, no body, no presence, and its even worse with pseudo-anonymity. This isn’t community. You don’t even know my fucking name.
I have an entire life, history, interpersonal connections, my own thoughts and feelings and none of that is on the internet. Here I am a floating text box for you to yell at and talk down to, and for all you know I am a bot. You will never care about me or anyone else on a forum the way you will a real person, no matter how much you insist otherwise. You can’t, because this isn’t a community. We are all perfect strangers that are here to beat each other up for fun.
We can’t help each other here. You have to log off.
See, this kind of nastiness proves my point. I’m not human to you, I’m a random encounter in the posting RPG.
You just want to hurt me so you can win. That’s not community.
The internet can form community but it’s not the same. I’m about to move across the country and crash with a friend I met through the internet; and I’ve only seen her irl twice. That whole friend group are some of my best friends. And they aren’t even the only close friendships I have through the internet.
But also, I’ve done the only socialize online thing and it broke my mind in college and again in the pandemic (which is when I met both friend groups I mentioned earlier). I need physical places where I can interact positively with other physical humans. I need physical places that I can coexist with other people and that’s what an actual third space is. And I’ve seen what only existing on the internet does to people and it’s not good
Yes yes thank you, this is what I meant. I know I pissed a lot of people off by saying that internet communities aren’t real, but what I meant is that they aren’t a replacement for community. The distance, the lag, the lack of a face or voice or body, the time zones, there’s so many elements that make internet “community” into something that I struggle to call community.
If people want to call it community then fine, but it’s not a neighborhood or a workplace or (in the earlier example) congregation.
