Once upon a time, everyone knew their neighbors. As a kid, all the parents knew which child belonged where. We played outside until dinner time or the street lights came on, whichever came first. We knew everyone at school because they came from the same neighborhood.
Now, I’ll bet most of you, including me, don’t know your neighbors. You probably know more about those on your friends list on Facebook than you do the person living next door to you. Kids stay inside on their computers or playing video games than outside playing with the other kids. With our mobile society, we often times don’t have time to even get to know our neighbors before we move again.
When you go to school, the person next to you may live 2 blocks from you or live on the other side of town.
I’m wondering if a study has been done comparing the loss of face to face communications and knowing, or not knowing, our neighbors with the increase in violence. Other than domestic violence, people rarely shoot those they know; they shoot the stranger. With our lives so tied to our computers/tablets/smartphones rather than those living right next door to us, everyone is a stranger so that much easier to commit violence against.