JOIN the CROWD

As rates of loneliness soar, building community is more important for our health than ever.

- WORDS by ANNA MATILDA

Historically, communities tended to be geographic, but in the age of digital communication, geography is no longer integral.

These days you can’t swing your arms without encountering a group of peeps doing something together, whether it’s online or in the flesh. Sports clubs, school committees, volunteer groups, online gaming forums, work social groups – they’re all made up of people who meet and get along for a specific reason.

To me, there’s a distinct difference between communities (with a little ‘c’) and Community (with a big ‘C’). When we talk about communities (little ‘c’), they’re quite often based on geography, and the word speaks of a group of people gathering together for a specific shared purpose or action.

For example, a landcare community that’s focused on cleaning up local beaches. That community is made up of the people who plan and market the clean-up days; the volunteers who turn up to the clean-up days once a month; and potentially the people who make donations to keep the volunteers supplied with bags and gloves.

Community with a big ‘C’, on the other hand, is broader than that. It’s not so much based on what I might do with one set of people; it’s more a sense or a feeling I get just from knowing there are different groups out there, invested in doing things to make the world a better place to live.