12
votes
“Get off my lawn” goes digital: Home surveillance apps and community social networks aren't making anyone safer. They're allowing paranoid jerks to harass their neighbors.
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- Title
- "Get Off My Lawn" Goes Digital
- Word count
- 1048 words
compare/see also vox's reporting on this same issue here: The rise of fear-based social media like Nextdoor, Citizen, and now Amazon’s Neighbors (tildes discussion).
I kinda want to lurk on my area's NextDoor to see what kind of craziness goes down as far as it's userbase, but I also don't want to find out. I already met a busybody talking about "the Mexicans" playing soccer at the elementary school across the street (it's an organized kids league).
I hadn't considered the real issues of this sort of online neighborhood watch situation, but it's a bit concerning.
It might not be so bad, my neighborhood's nextdoor is mostly people posting free stuff that they're putting on the curb, organizing neighborhood events, and finding lost pets.
Since they expanded the default area you see posts from, however, I see posts from some other neighborhoods that are much more paranoid, whiny, or political
While my community doesn't use NextDoor, there is a Facebook group that is used and other than images or clips of people trying to steal cars, the posts are generally positive. The only non-positive things posted are usually people complaining about people driving too fast or about how the one road leaving the neighbourhood should be 70 or 80 km/h instead of 60 km/h because... reasons? I don't know.