Sorry to single you out specifically, but you look like you've thought a lot about that kind of thing, so I'll ask. When you say:
> But it's a window into just how isolated people are and what it feels like to not have community.
What do you mean by community? I see this word everywhere online, and never really understood it. I think it's mostly an American thing, but I'm not sure. I can see how someone has family, friends, acquaintances from work or hobbies, but I don't get what's meant by "community".
I think the original article painted it pretty well. If you could disappear and nobody would notice, you probably aren't part of a community. Shared interests and activities definitely count if there's meaningful interaction happening. Work can be a type of community too.
The hallmarks of community IMO are some shared values, some shared purpose, recurring interactions, united under some named banner. A well functioning workplace can feel a lot like a thriving community.
I don't really have much in the way of community myself at the moment, but I have experienced it before. I think it's one of those things like sex where everyone who's never participated thinks it's a huge deal, but once you've been at it a little while, it's still important, but the framing shifts a lot.
It's one thing to be a stable loner that's not invested in any group, but it's another to desperately be seeking a community without the experience to know what's "normal". That's where the parasocial stuff starts happening.
My definition of community is, a group of people that is a source of new relationships. It's bigger than a circle of friends; a community is necessarily large enough that not everyone knows everyone. But it's also cohesive enough, that if you throw a party and invite a community, you have a reasonable sense of who (or at least what kind of people) are going to show up.
> But it's a window into just how isolated people are and what it feels like to not have community.
What do you mean by community? I see this word everywhere online, and never really understood it. I think it's mostly an American thing, but I'm not sure. I can see how someone has family, friends, acquaintances from work or hobbies, but I don't get what's meant by "community".