Joseph Rueter

It seems that back in the days when porches were the architectural norm we in America had far less anonymity on a whole than we do now. I wonder if it has anything to do with porches and neighborhoods and lifestyles all being set up to support a community of people living together in a way that most everyone knew everyone and a fair bit about what was going on in each others lives.

Since we largely moved to the suburbs and in just one act of many anonymous acts hid ourselves in basement entertainment rooms for example, there has been a period of drastic anonymity. Anyone can be anonymous in the structures we have set up for ourselves. However, it seems to me that the current explosion in social media and the vast sea of services that help us tell others what we are doing, it could just be that we are headed back to the days of the porch, all-be-it a digital porch.

So, what are you doing to be less anonymous? Twitter? Facebook? Blogging? Is it something you’ve thought about? Is it something you want to change? If you don’t value community would you if you had a strong sense of community?