Increasing Connectivity

One way to improve community involvement and spread urban sustainability initiative in our connected century is to make use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and more specific websites like HomeElephant and ZimRide. HomeElephant is a social media site used for neighbors to connect, in case they’d like to meet each other, to organize neighborhood gatherings, simply do each other favors, view neighbor alerts, and rebuild community. The founder of the website, Chandler Powell, only knew ten people in his neighborhood before he created HomeElephant, and then, after, twenty homes in two streets joined. Now, at least 67 countries and 6156 neighborhoods are joined. The concept may be frightening for Americans because we enjoy our privacy and we are afraid of strangers. The average American may criticize the concept as “creepy,” however, for a person like Joe Hatchiban who would like to start an event to make use of a public space could use HomeElephant in order to take polls to see how locals would feel about a transformation in the area. 

Another safe social media website for neighbor connecting is Nextdoor, where privacy is guaranteed, but people can still meet each other. For those who want to “bring back a sense of community,” joining Nextdoor is a good step to take. The social network has already been made public in many acclaimed newspapers and news channels, like The New York Times and CNN. Another website, ZimRide can be used to connect people in a given area who would like to carpool. The site is very practical because it helps users save money and meet others heading in the same direction, besides having the benefit of being ecofriendly. Whether it is used by Miamians who hope to take one car off the road and lessen congestion or young college students who want to venture to San Francisco on a road trip (which happens to be ZimRide’s current top destination), ZimRide is a safer alternative to hitchhiking and a quicker alternative to planning trips and has made a modern, trendy approach to ride sharing. According to the website, “with Zimride profiles, you can check out interests, music tastes, and feedback before you share a ride.” Drivers are paid, and gas money is saved, which is very convenient in a bad economy. Though the United States currently struggles with healthy human connection and community in person as we see in our suburban landscaping, we are doing very well in connecting over the web, and we should take the opportunities that social media sites give us, if we are comfortable with them, to reestablish communities and meet new people in real life.