Thoughts on Community
Scattered thoughts, just jotting them down:
In a community, there are 5% opinion leaders, 15% active users, and 5% active users striving to become opinion leaders.
Libraries aren’t short on “users,” but they can’t form a community. Libraries lean more towards being a “tool” for users, with no interaction between them. Basketball courts are different, though — their “physical contact” through team sports, whether in set teams or impromptu, naturally leads to socializing. But basketball courts are also too niche. Their greatest value is as part of a university where different niches can all have their place.
If there’s an app that can keep a dialogue between two people going, then it would be a primitive but successful social connection. But in real life, it’s hard to maintain sustained focus and interaction between two people, because “relationships” change with “external conditions,” like distance, status, identity, interests, or jobs. There’s no unchanging social relationship.
In life, you regularly connect with at most 5 people (excluding those in specific professions). That’s true for me, and for many friends around me. If a “social tool” could help people expand their social circle (online and offline), then how many relationships can an average person maintain? Of course, relationships vary in strength.