Culture and Society - offline/online communities

This week I have considered my engagement with different communities. When I was younger I definitely felt more like part of the community I live in then I do now. When you're young and in school it's very easy to be part of the community you live in. You go to school everyday, you go to the local shop everyday after school, you go to youth club, you go to football/camogie training. All of this involves being part of the local community and engaging with all the people in the community. I live in a very small village so in primary school everyone hangs round with each other and everyone knew each other other. All of the school and after school activities involved the same people. But since going to secondary school I got further and further away from the community I live in. Instead of hanging out in the village every day I was at school in town and hanging round town after school and making new friends. I never really felt like part of a community during this time. Maybe it was a community in itself but it was nothing like the sense of community that I was used to.

Now, even though I've lived in the same place my whole life I don't feel like part of the community I live in. There has been so many new houses built in my area in the last few years that I don't know a lot of people that live there now that I maybe would know if I was only growing up now. I also never see a lot of the people that I used to see everyday because we hang out in completely different circles now. I still hang around with two friends that live beside me but most of my friends are in town.

When I say 'hang around' even that meaning is different then it used to be years ago. Now I hang around with my friends in each other houses every evening. Years ago we were hanging around sitting on a wall, freezing, down the road. I used to tell my mam 'I'm going down the road.' She would never really know where I was but now its more specific when I say I'm going to a certain friends house. But before we would pick a specific point, ie. the wall, and a specific time to meet and everyone would be there at the exact time and place. Now when I'm meeting someone its like 'I'll ring you when I'm leaving to see where you are.'

In terms of hanging around online I think teenagers see this as very important. They are afraid to be offline incase they miss something. I think the idea of missing out is a big thing for teenagers. I know when I was younger I always wanted to do the things and go places everyone else was going incase I missed something but as you get older you definitely grow out of this and realise that maybe other things are more important. But for teenagers I think that hanging around online is the equivalent of this nowadays. In a way it does make more sense to hang around online waiting for your friends to come so you can talk or play games with them rather then hanging round on the street hoping that one of your friends might come along. There's also definitely a benefit to engaging online in a warm house on a comfy seat rather then outside on a freezing cold wall. It also means to don't have to get dressed or put on makeup, you can look a mess while talking to people without having to care.