Are We Truly A Community?

It’s often been said that what defines us as humans is the aspect of emotional experience. It’s the ties that bind us. That struggle, the turmoil, the chaos, the 'figuring it out as we go'. The acknowledgment that life just sucks, but it least it sucks for everyone. Right. At least we all have to go through it TOGETHER. But with everything going on in this day and age, that societal connection is becoming more and more strained. Psychologists and sociologists alike over the years have attempted to define exactly what a true, functioning community of people should entail. Their findings have given us a framework with which we can attempt to dissect todays’ social bonds and interactions. Take for instance, these four distinct elements presented by phycologists McMillan & Chavis. They are as follows:

1.MEMBERSHIP

2. INFLUENCE

3. FUFILLMENT OF NEEDS

4. AND SHARED EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

While each of these pieces should ideally coexist within a healthy, functioning society, when we apply them to how we operate today, we find many crucial components are missing. Membership for instance. You can take this to include things like:

· Boundaries

· Emotional/physical safety

· A sense of belonging etc.

Do you feel safe in today’s society? Really? Think about that. Interestingly enough, emotional and physical safety are also some of the biggest points on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (shown below) which models what is believed to be the most basic requirements to peak human functionality and thus, human behavior and interaction.

Of course, this is modeled after the individual, but on a broader scale, if individuals make up a community and so many are going without these needs being met, isn’t that indicative to a larger issue? Is 'membership' something that we can honestly say we have achieved as a community of people in 2023? With everything that is going on in this day and age? How could a healthy sense of belonging possibly be fostered in this kind of environment? When so many people feel discriminated against, or isolated or unheard or slighted? And then you factor in social media, something that was meant to draw us closer together and make us feel seen and heard, to be pulling us further apart? We look to our neighbors now not with a sense of kindness and neighborly love, but with a sense of envy and skepticism. That doesn't sound like a membership I’d personally subscribe to.

Next, there’s the aspect of influence. As we’ve seen in real time, this society relies so heavily on an unbalanced system of power and Influence, that its nearly crippling us. Were here fighting each other over things and resources because an outside power deemed it necessary, whereas, in a healthy community, influence is ideally meant to work both ways: members need to feel that they have some influence in the group, and some influence by the group on its members is needed for group cohesion. But as we all know, in America our votes are simply suggestions, and mainstream media can be easily manipulated to support whatever outcome is deemed beneficial. So basically, what we have left is the illusion of power, just as we have the illusion of global community.

Next is integration and fulfillment of needs, which in this context means that members need to feel rewarded in some way for their participation in the community. now we do as a society get 'rewarded ' with a paycheck by abiding by social rules and regulations. but is that really a reward? And what’s worse, it’s a system that leaves its members feeling anything but fulfilled. Just the opposite really. It makes us feel empty. It’s on us to fulfill our own needs, which makes us inclined too only look out for ourselves leading to this sense of hyper individualism, or a tendency for people to act in a highly individual way, without regard to society at all. When ideally, it would/could be a matter handled on a societal level, forcing us think of one another as a whole that benefits from each of its members happiness and satisfaction.

Lastly, shared emotional connection, as I was saying earlier, may be the only thing that truly still binds us as a community of people. Shared experience and emotions. Regardless, it seems humanity is quickly evolving in a direction that relies less on physical and emotional connection with its members. Humans evolve, what if we’re simply evolving above or past the need for human interaction and true community. Could we perhaps be evolving to a point of no longer needing the some of the things psychology and sociology has previously Deemed necessary? Or will genuine connection stand the test of time?