If you’re traveling and want to know what’s going on back home — not just in your country, state or city, but right in your neighborhood — one of the best ways to check in can be your hyperlocal social media feed.
For instance, if you look at the Stephens Grove Neighborhood page on Facebook over the last few days, you’ll see all sorts of indications of what your neighbors are doing, saying and thinking about. For instance:
- Jill wrote, “Question: many yards here are very green. Ours is very brown. New to NC. What should we be doing to the yard in winter??” She got quite a few answers from knowledgeable neighbors.
- David was seeking a different kind of help: “Missing. We just rehomed a cat for a friend that went into long-term care. Had him a few days and he is missing. Corner of Stephens and Beatties Ford. Please msg if you see him. Rudy is very anti-social also. Thanks” A picture was included. Rudy is black, with white feet and a white nose.
- Reid was giving stuff away: “Does anyone need mailbox numbers for free? This is what we have left after fixing ours.” See the image below.
- Grace helped out a neighbor: “We received this dog food by accident! … Porch pick up…!” The owners responded that they’d be right over to get it.
Of course, when something is as convenient as Facebook, it requires some caution. Bill Farley issued a warning:
Half of the posts on our neighborhood FB page are not from people that live here. Do NOT assume that someone acting neighborly on this page is actually our neighbor.
DO NOT direct message (DM) someone on here because they asked you to. When you DM someone, you are removing some of the built in security features and allowing a stranger to see things about your private account they would not normally have access to…
Thanks for the tip, Bill. And because of that, we’ve had to make our group private from search. But if you want to join, just reach out to someone on the board or someone you know who is already in the group can add you. As a reminder, this group is exclusively for residents of the Stephens Grove neighborhood.
Beyond DMs, we should always be careful about sharing information with anyone on a medium that can be seen by the rest of the world. So how can we make social media a good environment for all concerned?
You can find a lot of advice, such as here and here and here. We particularly liked these suggestions from AARP: These were our favorites:
- “Share good news.” There’s enough of the bad stuff out there. Be a positive force.
- “Stay connected. Keep an eye on your social media feed and send messages to friends or family members who may be at risk of isolation or loneliness.” Amen to that.
- “Conduct a ‘kindness challenge.'” In other words, tell about good things that happen around you.
“Be a part of the effort to flood social media with good news and positive messages,” AARP concludes.
Another way to put it: There’s a lot of nasty stuff out there. Let’s be part of the solution. Fortunately, that’s what we’ve been seeing a lot of on the Stephens Grove page…
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