Knock, Knock Knocking on the "Nextdoor" (.com)

Around about 2015, the social media app Nextdoor.com came onto the landscape as a way for neighbors to exchange all kinds of information including service provider recommendations, crime alerts and nearby events.   It seemed to be a more interesting form of social media than the old Neighborhood Link website that still is in existence but is in the back of the proverbial closet along with the old shoes that you have not worn since 2008.

It looks a lot like a stripped down Facebook with just the bare bones abilities of posting, reading and replying.  It is not entertaining; it is not going to give you the hit of dopamine that Facebook attempts to give you to keep you connected.  

I have a few criticisms of Nextdoor that are more along the lines of caveat emptor (buyer beware), but hopefully they do not stop you from getting on the website because it has the potential to be useful to

• Pass on crime information
• Pass on important local information
• Look for your lost pet
• Let people you have a found pet
• Ask for recommendations
• Sell things like your lawn furniture.   

1) It is not particularly easy to get on Nextdoor

Given that it is a "private" social network, you must know someone in your neighborhood who is on Nextdoor and can humanly vouch that you live in the area.   What that means is if you are motivated to get on Nextdoor, you have to meet people in your neighborhood and ask if they are on Nextdoor, and ask if they will vouch that you really live in that area.   If you are an introvert or have social anxiety, it may be particularly hard to go to your neighbors and ask what seems to be a random question: "Are you on Nextdoor?"   (For the particularly OCD crowd there is the irrational phobia that they will not hear "Nextdoor" but "Backdoor" and call you a pervert and demand that you leave.) 

Levity aside, I get occasional emails asking me to vouch for someone. Given that I have been working so much and have been spread thin, I do not know someone who just moved in on Del Rio Place, Windward Way, Radiance Road and clearly not Aries or Somber.  There is only so much time that one can naturally give to meet new neighbors, invite them and approve them for Nextdoor. 

2) It does reflect the Jason Lanier's BUMMER concept for deleting your social media accounts. 

A book I read in the past year that has made me think is Lanier, J (2018) Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.  New York: Henry Holt and Company. In this book Lanier has this concept called "BUMMER, " which means 

• Behaviors of
• Users
• Modified and 
• Made into an 
• Empire for 
• Rent

Lanier noted that social media platforms such as Google and Facebook track what we do online and as a result deliver moderated content that the computer algorithms  predict that we are interested in. Eventually the algorithms have the potential to shape the material that we see online by obscuring those posts of material we have not seen for awhile.  In the end, we become an advertising base that they can claim they can deliver to advertisers. 

Nextdoor is free and it has more advertising than those free apps from the play store or the app store. Like Facebook, it is a business that that makes its money selling advertising to an audience it accumulates: us.  I have been mindful of what I see on Facebook lately, especially all the watch advertisements (Yes, I bit and bought a watch, a T-shirt that says I am from Iowa and live in Kentucky from advertisements on Facebook--and now those ads will not stop.)  Anyway, I do not spend as much time on Nextdoor as I do Facebook, so I do not cannot tell how sophisticated its algorithms are in monitoring my mouse clicks and moderating what advertising and posts I see. 

3) It appears to be easy to get fatigued from what is on Nextdoor 

It seems to me that the different social media platforms all present as having the the same product life as a popular song on the radio: they stop providing the same consistent hit of dopamine that we all crave so we go onto something else.  Initially for many people it was thrilling to be connected to others on social media, but we ended up unfriending people because we realized we had things about each other that offended and rubbed each other the wrong way. We started talking about our political views and started expressing what chafed our hides and in the process we offended each other because we realized we did not think alike.   

We also started annoying each other with how much we posted. They are like a few of my prolific Facebook friends who post a lot and look like they do not have much of a life.  

(This is where I will likely step on toes.)  The posts on Nextdoor appear to be from relatively few people.  They dominate the material and the comments.   After awhile many have appeared to have deactivated their Nextdoor accounts because they saw the same people post again and again and concluded "There's nothing to see here." 

On the flip side those dominating the posts also appear to be be the people who report others for violation of standards. I was nominated to be a "lead" for Del Rio to Furman and what this means that I am the human replacement for the Facebook algorithm to delete inappropriate posts and comments.  There are a number standards 

1) Be helpful, not hurtful

2) Don't use Nextdoor as a soapbox

3) Promote local businesses and commerce the right way

4) Use your true identity

5) Keep it clean and legal

While I appreciate that Nextdoor keeps the political activist organizations and their histrionic memes off of this website, I have seen a number of "reported" messages presented for "review" that make me go "Oh pleassssssssssssse."   

What is 

• helpful and hurtful,
• what is a soapbox
• and promoting business and commerce the right way

is nicely defined on Nextdoor's policy page but can prove to be highly existential in real life. Furthermore, I have noted that some people who are the primary reporters of violations have "thin skin," which I will describe as they can complain all they want to others but when people complain back to them, they cannot cope with the emotions of others (it is either a character or ego-strength issues).   

Their thin-skin is reflected in their repeatedly reporting comments as violating "helpful not hurtful" and promoting businesses and commerce the right way.   I have noticed at least one thin-skinned person leaving Nextdoor, which did not surprise me, and I thought it was probably good that they did. 

Joining Nextdoor is a Good Thing Anyway

Despite my criticisms, I think that joining Nextdoor.com is a good thing in the frenetic paced life in the 21st century.   Just don't expect that it is going to be as entertaining or fulfilling as Facebook. 

I at least get a five second idea of what is happening or what people complain about.  It is like the scene in The Lion King where Zazu tells Mufasa all of the gossip on the savanna.  I would recommend that you simply look at the email it sends you and see what the post is.

If you are interested in getting on Nextdoor an opportunity would be for you to come to tomorrow night's Bon Air Neighborhood's Membership Lite meeting where we can vouch you live in Bon Air or DelRio Place to Furman. 

The meeting is at the Creekside, 3535 Bardstown Rd at 6:30 pm.  

By the way for those who know the song that inspired the title, the Bob Dylan version will always be better than the Guns N Roses version. 😉