If we are social creatures, then why is it so hard to socialize these days? While the context of this question is rooted in history, the real thesis is about looking forward.
Looking forward is critical – professionally and personally – not only for brands. As a 20-something strategist, I have hope that a strong social network, an IRL one, is possible and achievable.
Inherently, strategy is about solving a problem and creatively defining a winning path forward. So, how do we use community as a positive force for your business and the world?
Let’s find out.
THE PAST: THE IRL GENERATION
Our grandparents and great-grandparents were born into a world where community was the key to social success. People went to church and to book club; they got married and had children; they played in parks and attended movies. The contemporary sentiment agreed that spending time with other people in physical spaces positively contributed to a life well spent.
Out of this, social selling was born. Think brands like Tupperware or Avon, which leveraged the power of social influence to get products in hands. The trust people had for their neighbors and friends was funneled directly into brand trust and loyalty.
TIP: Inspiration can come from bygone eras. For leaders of brands with an extensive history, go back into the archives to explore how community built or shaped your brand. And, for newer brands, look broader at the category’s past to see if anything resonates with today.
Following the boom of social connection in the early and mid-1900s came a sharp decline. In fact, from “the late 1970s to the late 1990s, the frequency of hosting friends for parties, games, dinners, and so on declined by 45%.”
What changed?
THE PRESENT: THE URL GENERATION
Some blame it on the automobile, some blame it on the television – others blame it on a combination of the two. Regardless, some of the most iconic and influential technologies on human progress are also ones that threaten social connection.
Whether you’re “team automobile” or “team television,” it’s hard to argue that these innovations have impacted socialization more than the device that promised to put the world at our fingertips: the smartphone. Despite having more access to other people than ever before, we are in a full-blown “national anti-social streak.” To put it bluntly, “Americans are spending less time with other people than in any other period for which we have trustworthy data, going back to 1965.”
This “national anti-social streak” impacts all aspects of life, including everything from dining to media to dating to parenting to working. In all major pillars of life and identity, people are going at it alone. While the young and the old are more vulnerable to loneliness, no one is immune to its individual and societal repercussions.
TIP: Consider the “pillars of life” that your brand influences – are there opportunities to make or strengthen community within those pillars?
On the micro level, chronic loneliness has been compared to smoking or alcohol consumption, with negative effects on brain health, the cardiovascular system, and mental well-being. On the macro level, the social cost is being paid in division and distrust. We think that time alone will make us happy, but it’s actually doing the opposite.
And sadly, brands feed into this disillusioned need for time alone. Online shopping is easier and more convenient. Social media companies optimize for attention and time. Household products tout the luxuries of staying home. Somewhere along the line, solitude became a functional benefit proudly sold to the masses.
What’s next?
THE FUTURE: CONNECTED COMMUNITIES
Culturally, we are seeing quiet rebellions rise against an isolated digital world. If you look closely, the inklings of a new wave of social connection can be found in the headlines: Gen Z is bringing the mall back, people are detoxing from their phones or choosing dumb phones, high school students are opting for hands-on careers, independent bookstores are booming, and board games are providing screen-free fun.
And if you look even closer, it’s more apparent in the active but humble corners of the internet: in subreddits, in TikTok comments, and in Substacks. Eventbrite, an online ticketing platform for local events, coined the term “Fourth Spaces” to refer to a new genre of community centers that bridge our IRL lives with our digital ones.
Oftentimes, the more niche the interest, the more passionate the community. For example, “Fourth Spaces” might include a meetup of amateur tattoo artists, a listening party for a small artist, or a fundraiser for a local skate park. This is what the future craves: “95% of 18 to 35-year-olds are interested in exploring interests and communities they’ve discovered online through in-person events.”
That being said, traditional third places are still worthy of our time and attention. If “45% of 18 to 35-year-olds say ‘a sense of belonging and identity’ attracts them to communities they’re interested in,” then IRL events cannot become a “monolith of experience.” Said differently, if we build identity from our communities, then we can’t settle for uniformity.
We need to encourage people, especially young folks, to diversify the communities to which they belong. We must avoid the echo chamber by communing in spaces with people who see the world differently from ourselves.
TIP: Too often, brand leaders see their audiences as one-dimensional or uniform. Consider what makes your audience unique or different. How can you encourage your audience to celebrate their various identities through community?
Our future is a harmonious blend of all of our identities. We will ebb and flow between our personal lives and our digital ones – meeting in traditional spaces like libraries and parks and finding new ones like comedy clubs and arcades.
THE IMPACT: WHAT CAN BRANDS DO
Brands don’t have to just bear witness to culture, they can be a part of it. It’s far too easy to be convinced that a brand is too small or too large, or really any “too,” to be at the forefront of change. Success lies in flipping the script. Instead of coming up with a list of all the ways your brand is incapable of rising to the challenge, consider all the ways it could make a difference in the lives of the people it serves now and into the future.
While the status quo might say a national crisis like loneliness is something to shy away from or even exploit, a strategist would say that “crises are occasions to stand up and be counted on.”
So, build stronger online communities, partner with public institutions, lean into a wild in-person activation, call out loneliness as a taboo – whatever it is that you do, push yourself and your organization to do good for the world. Remember, every step toward progress is a win.
