Today, community has a few different meanings – It could be a discord server, a facebook group, even the somewhat famous Dan Harmon TV series.
The word “community” has its roots in Latin as communitas, meaning “community”, “fellowship”, or “society”. Communitas comes from communis – “common”, “public”, or “shared”.
Each online community that gets generated is a reach to find those who share in our similarities. Sharing images, writing posts on message boards, and talking in chatrooms have all been ways we try to connect to one another. Even though we may find “our people”, does it truly connect us? In the end, what is shared among us other than ideas?
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Growing up, entering the adult world, and taking on an ever growing list of responsibilities that our parents always warned us about, our priorities begin to shift. Our social lives rely more heavily on those we work with and those who are most dear to us – spouses, family, children, maybe neighbors.
Well, what happens when you move away to chase employment? Or you buy a house a little bit further out of town because it’s more manageable. What had become of our solidified social connections dwindles even further. Maybe you don’t have kids either? Over the past 50 years, the age in which we start having children has been pushed back by 5 years! Source
If you’re anything like me, quite a few of those “what ifs” are a reality of our lives.
Having grown up experiencing the transition from corded telephones in the kitchen with an answering machine to having a smartphone in my pocket that tracks my every movement, embracing technology has been both a gift and a curse.
Google and Facebook’s algorithms have made it so easy to explore our niche interests. Entire communities have been built up around things such as speed running video games, content creation, anime and cosplay, you name it. The speed at which we are creating things digitally is simply astounding.
But, just as easy as it is to discover new trends or find groups of people who post memes that no one else you personally know would understand, how hard has it become to known who lives down the block from you? The sheer amount of content online can leave one feeling exhausted in real life. So exhausted that we barely make time to discover the communities surrounding us, even just down the street.
If you are here, I believe you have come to some of the same conclusions I have – the internet, which has drawn us together in many ways, has also driven us apart. This is where I believe we need to change.
The purpose behind LPCMA is to be a social group for men simply to reconnect with fellow men in their communities. It’s not about video gaming, drinking, smoking meat, or any other particular “thing” that makes up who you are. It’s an effort to get to know those around us, an effort to step outside of our comfort zones a little bit to discover who is right in our backyard.
In the effort to build community, we hope you can forge new friendships, find maybe new passions you can share, and broaden your network. Let’s forge a new, real community!
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