#NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS HOW TO#

вЂњThese apps cover both psychological needs (belonging, security, being heard) as well as practical needs (receiving support, being able to offer support, keeping updated with a rapidly changing situation) in relation to very specific geographical areas. The shared experiences we have with our neighbours, like clapping for the NHS, all help develop that bond. With time on his hands thanks to Covid, he offered to give Spanish lessons to his neighbours via Nextdoor вЂ“ including to one elderly woman who couldnвЂ™t communicate with her Colombian granddaughter.Дr Evangelos Ntontis, a lecturer in social psychology for Canterbury Christ Church university and a member of The British Psychological SocietyвЂ™s Social Psychology Section, says that itвЂ™s easy to feel a closeness with others when weвЂ™re all affected by the same threat вЂ“ particularly when that threat is geographical, like flooding or a Covid outbreak.

And Alberto Salas, from London, who arrived in London last year to teach Spanish at Greenwich University. Or Louise, a seamstress and costume designer from Essex, who posted on Nextdoor to ask if anybody wanted a face mask in return for an NHS donation: sheвЂ™s since made over 200 masks for her community. He died in December, surrounded by cards and presents from his neighbours. Like another high-profile war veteran of the same name, Tom received a flurry of cards, hot meals and even presents. Sharon asked the Nextdoor group to send Tom a letter or a card to show him that he wasnвЂ™t alone. Through the group, Sharon met 92-year-old war veteran Tom, who was suffering from terminal cancer and isolated following the death of his daughter. Like Sharon, from Hove, who used Nextdoor to reach out to the vulnerable in her community. And in LondonвЂ™s case, well, have you ever seen anybody willingly engage somebody else on the Tube? ThatвЂ™s certainly true of cities, which are sprawling and typically isolating, sucking people in for work, away from their friends and families. Professor Stephanie J Morgan of the University of Aberdeen Business School, who has published papers on social media and the power of вЂњstrong tiesвЂќ, says that often, вЂњthe bigger the crowd, the fewer people you want to talk toвЂќ. In particular, one of the most active groups of users are вЂњbetween the commonsвЂќ in Southwest London, the affluent belt between Clapham and Wandsworth commons. One in five Londoners are on Nextdoor, compared to one in seven across the UK as a whole, according to the app. Generally, Nextdoor users are skewed towards cities. But during lockdown, this excitement was happening just a few hundred metres down the road. A post about a dumped snake in January 2020 wouldnвЂ™t have bothered me given I was at work I wouldnвЂ™t have seen it.

No surprises, really: when weвЂ™re all banished to our homes, of course weвЂ™re more interested in the minutiae of our neighbourhoods.

User numbers and engagement spiked in the weeks and months following March 2020вЂ“ particularly in London. Lockdowns have a lot to do with NextdoorвЂ™s success.

#NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS HOW TO#

How to turn community kindness into community action once lockdown lifts.

Next door neighbors