We have been living in a technology boom and a crazy, social media world. The reality is that even though we are connected with people thousands of miles away, the depression rate is still rising. Why? Just like any other animal on the planet, we humans are social animals and we need people physically around us, we enjoy living & talking with like-minded people. We love to help each other when we see someone around us, struggling with something, no matter what relationship we hold with them & we hope to get similar help when we are struggling.
I grew up in a small town, and I have been away from my town for almost half of my life now but I have the strongest memories from those days. The childhood memories that are built through real-world bonding are the longest lasting. We can’t build those same memories through video chat & online world.
We used to get out of home in the morning, to show up at dinner time only. We never saw our parents worried about our whereabouts. Today we see parent accompanying their kids even to playgrounds or parking lots. Why is that? Why don’t feel secure in our apartment even when we have cameras and security guards placed everywhere?
Isn’t that because most of us are living like strangers in our communities? It is fact that strangers do not trust each other, and that’s what drives our feelings of fear and insecurity.
When we are connected with people in our communities, we get to know them better through real-world interaction we build bonds with them & that’s what builds trust among us. Trust drives the feeling that, if something goes wrong there people around us to help & that’s gives us feelings of security and safety. Can we derive the same feeling & confidence from our all-social media connection?
Let’s not forget, a standalone home or even an apartment does not make the neighborhood, rather, it’s a complete ecosystem where everyone plays their role & gets their requirements satisfied. That any impact on the neighborhood directly impacts the life of the people living in that neighborhood.
We often hear or read that, some neighborhoods are good and some are bad. We generally don’t prefer to live in a bad neighborhood, because we are concerned for the safety and security of our family. Did we ever ask a question to ourselves, why do some neighborhoods turn bad or vulnerable?
Why are we crazy about the neighborhood?
Our market research shows that it is directly linked with happiness in the neighborhood. Let me elaborate that little more. We know the neighborhoods are consistent of, people living there, vendors, small businesses, handymen, service providers, etc. Most of these vendors and service providers depend upon the neighborhood for their livelihood. If these people struggle every day, fail to send their kids to good schools, and fail to feed their families, they will get frustrated. There’s a very high probability that their frustration will come out at their shop or workplace because that’s where they are spending most of their day. The collective effect of such frustration in the neighborhood creates unrest in that neighborhood making it unsafe. Anyone living in such neighborhood gets impacted directly or indirectly
So, the question is, what brings happiness to the neighborhood? If every shop, business, vendor, or service provider who is dependent on the neighborhood is doing good, making ends meet, enriching & is able to keep their family happy, then it automatically brings satisfaction & happiness to them, which in turn makes the neighborhood happy.
Who is responsible for the upliftment or downfall of the neighborhood? We the residents of that neighborhood own that responsibility. When we start shopping online for the sake of little conveniences and small discounts, we don’t think about the impact it will be creating an impact on the neighborhood shop from where we have been shopping for years, with whom we have built relationships. Every quick delivery online order is actually taking away business from some neighborhood stores or restaurants, that have been doing business there for years and years. Let’s not forget they are depending upon the resident of that neighborhood and we are their only hope of survival. If we turn away from them, they will suffer losses and struggle in their life. Again, not to exaggerate, but their frustration will impact the safety & security of their own neighborhood.
You may think how does that matter to you, you live in a great apartment, with all facilities and security & you are not concerned about what’s going on outside your apartment. Even when you absolutely have no direct connection with your neighborhood, your great apartment is part of that neighborhood, right? Its brand and valuation will have a great impact which means the property you own there, will have less number of potential customers willing to move to such an insecure neighborhood. In Short, your property value will go down with the neighborhood safety index & you will suffer loss.
Is this fair? Are we doing the right thing? Do we really need all groceries in 10 min?
What if you get the same conveniences of online shopping from your neighborhood stores & restaurants directly & stay connected with them. That means they know who is ordering with them. Isn’t that going to help you keep your year-old relationship intact and help those neighborhood stores & restaurants make ends meet?
Will you not be pleased to see, the happy welcoming smile from any such neighborhood store or restaurant owner, when you pass by their stores in the neighborhood?
Recently there was an incident reported on LinkedIn. The link is given below.
This is a perfect example of, why there rise in hiring hesitation and fear of paying more in this online world. Yes, there is no doubt things are easy and accessibility is unlimited now but what about the reliability of those resources. Will those thousands of reviews on those portals or google be reliable? Do we know who is posting those reviews? Is those review even genuine?
When you need to hire someone to work at home, should we take the extreme risk for our own safety? Can we rely on such unknown sources & unreliable reviews?
What if find service providers from our own neighborhood? What if we get references from our neighbors? Who hired those local service providers previously and provided their feedback. Now we can call those neighbors, talk with them, get more feedback on their experience, and take look at the work they did at their homes. Will that not give us more confidence?
That’s exactly the OlaGate – Your Digital Neighborhood Platform is all about. Bringing Happiness back to the neighborhood as we believe in, “Happy Neighborhood. Safe Neighborhood”
