I feel it's unfair to be blaming phones, social media, and multiplayer video games for being the way teens get some peer socialization in a world that is so deeply unfriendly to teens having independence.

danah boyd spent a bunch of time studying teen use of earlier social media, and then for personal reasons moved on to help run teen crisis text hotline.

Her thought for why US teens are struggling are the lack of non-parent trusted adults in their lives.

"Struggling with a Moral Panic Once Again" https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2024/04/19/struggling-with-a-moral-panic-once-again.html

There's also some evidence that it's mostly teens on wealthy English speaking countries that are the most depressed.

"America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety: English-speaking teens are spreading their problems abroad." https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/06/mental-health-crisis-anglosphere-depressed/678724/

I have long thought modern American kids have too little freedom to go places on their own.

"This article is more than 8 years old: The popsicle test: what makes a city good for children?" https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/aug/21/city-good-children-popsicle-test-crime-property-play

Interesting article. I believe it makes sense what they are saying in the big picture. Certainly, people would benefit from creating and joining local non-online communities.

What in their definition of community do you find problematic?

The root of the loss of community that everyone feels is capitalism's total emphasis on institutional logics of exit that make everything extremely transactional while completely ignoring the dual institutional logic of commitment, cooperation and voice. Community emphasizes the latter. We need communities based around shared property, mutual aid and collective action. Incidentally, having such communities could help solve some public goods problems in a non-state manner and be more egalitarian

Ehh, in anarchism there's a concept of nominated authority Vs compelled authority (not sure of the exact phrasing of either but you get the point). If a group of people voluntarily elect authority there isn't really a problem with it.

"Down with all authority, except on a both figurative and literal anarchist plane/boat where the passengers all make the conscious informed and democratic* decision under no duress and a freedom of association that it's in their best interests as a community to delegate decision making power for their community to the captain of said boat/plane as he has the knowledge and experience to navigate it." doesn't exactly roll off the tongue does it? Nor does it fit on a poster.

But the same is true in communities. Humans are in their initial state very atomized and individual we are not like ant colonies or bee colonies where by default the welfare of others is even a known subject to us, but as we seek to accomplish tasks, we voluntarily commit to some degree of communal benefit and to ensure this community lasts long enough to yield said benefit we learn to keep the peace and abide by some social norms within this community.

It sounds like conservative hell, but the nuanced position between that and hyper-individualistic self-expression is that as long as said communities aren't coercive and association is voluntary, it's kind of okay.

However one flaw in this take is something like the Amish. Is it ethical for say, Amish or some other community that willingly foregoes the benefits of modern technology to have children, who may find that growing up not surrounded by tech has reduced their development in some ways?

Admittedly only read the headline but I thoroughly agree with that much. There's no kids outside playing, no one calls anyone, no one talks to their neighbors, no one has time to spend with each other and everything costs money to partake in now anyways. There is no such thing as community in the USA in 2024. We've reached peak individualism and frankly it's fucking miserable.

As we can see from this list, a community requires a commitment to a certain social order—and usually to a place—that, by definition, must constrain some choices. In return for security, support, and belonging, members surrender some of their freedom. This explains why creating community in America today is so difficult—few want to compromise their ability to make choices. This is especially true among those with the resources and/or capacity to relocate as soon as a better opportunity beckons—the very people whose leadership and role-modeling communities can ill afford to lose.

Quoting this because it's vital for anyone who wants to create or join any kind of intentional community. A lot of punks talk about starting intentional communities, because they want the kind of close community organization that this post talks about. But the problem is, when interpersonal relationships within the community get hard, and they will, inevitably, get hard, if people are free to leave, people will leave. And then your community collapses from lack of members.

You see a lot of anarchist organizational principles among mutual aid groups for homeless people and poor people in America. And I think that's because in those cases poverty itself supplies the coercion that keeps the group together - they make peace with one another because they can't afford to leave the group and live separately.

You also see anarchist organizational principles in organizations centered on shared religious, philosophical, or cultic beliefs. Same idea. People are unwilling to leave the group because they believe it's morally wrong to abandon the community of believers, or they fear being spiritually and culturally isolated among non-believers, so they work harder to solve interpersonal problems and keep the group together.

But if people are free to leave a community and suffer no consequences for it, and staying in the community does have a consequence - accepting abusive behavior by other community members, for instance - people will leave. It's normal, it's understandable, and it inevitably breaks down communities. And that's why I don't think the authors' understanding of community is at all wrong. In the long run everybody finds themselves in situations where they have to submit to their community's authority in order to remain in the community. And when people leave instead of submitting, that breaks community, and everyone, especially the children, suffer for it.

I don't think the definition of community is necessarily problematic. It centers on hierarchy and authority, yes. But even most anarchists recognize natural hierarchies. Parents have authority over children because children are not able to govern themselves. Community elders have authority within a community because of their age, experience, and the respect they've earned through longstanding ties to the community. When you need specialized information, about law, or medicine, or how to repair a car, or the difference between right and wrong, you go to a specialist who studied that field and you defer to their authority derived from their study and knowledge. And so on.

Everyone in a community is, or should be, equal as human beings. But not everyone has served the community equally or earned equal respect. Voluntary hierarchies based on duty and respect are not the same as involuntary hierarchies based on coercion. And it's those voluntary hierarchies that bind communities together.

But community is community-ism.