The community plays an essential factor in our lives, whether we like it or not. A community can easily determine how we grow as individuals and how we can adapt to given circumstances. However, many people believe that we are divided more than ever today and that it’s near impossible to make a community unite to a given cause. But this isn’t entirely the case because technology has given us the capability to connect more easily. Here are ways technology is bringing us ever closer today.
Accessibility
Communities worldwide can now be brought together because online content is easily understood by people worldwide, regardless of the language barrier. This is because of machine-learning technologies that help us translate content in real-time.
We might have used Google Translate or other software to help translate particular videos or maybe blog posts. Many communities from the US use this method to help translate Japanese blogs to know the life in Japan. Additionally, many communities with diverse nationalities use it to help better understand each other. People from one side of the world can also travel nowadays without spending years learning a particular language. All they need is a smartphone and an app that can help them translate their words.
Moreover, this accessibility can also be seen in apps such as Virtual Private Networks. VPNs are being used even more, especially during the rise of the pandemic, to tell stories of people from different areas of the world. Some of these areas might have been silenced by their government in hopes of suppressing bad media. But because of VPN apps, they shared their stories with communities that care and eventually helped them.
Technology has made it possible for community content to be shared worldwide. It has also made it possible for us to understand this content without too much hassle. This has given the world a chance to be closer than ever.
Community and Loyalty Apps
Community and loyalty apps have become the way to bring people every closer in communities. These apps have given us incentives to gather in various locations to support local causes and businesses found in our community. This has also given us a prime opportunity to grow our communities through these efforts.
We looked into these apps as a failed attempt to bring people together at some point in our lives. We all thought that technology is only meant to divide us. But throughout the years, it has shown the contrary.
Various local businesses bring in more locals than ever because most have integrated into a particular community app for Android and iOS phones. Some might have done it through various loyalty apps that reward consumers for supporting a particular business. Local causes can also now be seen by many people within a community regardless of their funding. It is through these apps community building has become more interactive than ever. It has helped many communities flourish because of it.
Social Media Sites
Social media usage is growing, especially among the younger generation. This is where they usually find their community regardless of their geographic location in the world.
Many social media sites are fostering internet communities that would not have otherwise worked out without it. This is where the younger generation finds their communities. Although these might not be the communities we know of before, these online communities still exhibit the essential qualities of every physical community in the world. Many who are part of these online communities have claimed that it is the same as being in any community in the real world. Some have even claimed that some online communities are much closer than their real-world counterparts.
There are many benefits of using social media sites as community hubs for people worldwide. The main benefit is that people worldwide can access the support group they need in times of crisis. This drastically increases the value of these social media sites and their online communities more than ever.
Collaboration
If you look back to about one hundred years ago, collaboration projects from individuals in different counties would have been impossible. Nowadays, global collaboration is much easier, and many schools worldwide are doing this to enrich learning in far-flung communities. Many teachers can now reach indigenous tribes in dire need of help transitioning into the modern world. These collaborative efforts are improved by increased communication networks in many countries, alongside wireless connections.
Many people think that technology is driving communities away from one another. Although this might be true to a certain extent, it’s undeniable that the same technology brings communities and their members ever closer to one another. These are just some of the ways technology has made it easier for us to find our communities and stick by them for better or worse.
