Remembering How to Be Neighbors

The tools we use have changed dramatically. The need for relationships has not.


The first newspaper I ever published on my own was called Neighbor to Neighbor.  That was more than 25 years ago.

Looking back, I realize the name reflected something I believed long before I entered digital marketing, podcasts, video production, or the world of artificial intelligence.

Community happens when neighbors know one another.

During that same season of my life, I served as a public relations director and community liaison working with children and families through the Save the Children program in Kentucky.

Those years took me everywhere.

If there was an opportunity to advocate for our youth, I was there. I traveled to Washington, D.C., Frankfort, Kentucky, and communities throughout the region. I spoke to civic groups, business leaders, elected officials, churches, and anyone willing to listen. I worked to raise awareness, build partnerships, and secure resources that would create opportunities for young people.

I loved every minute of it.

Not because of the travel.

Not because of the fundraising.

But because of the people.

I learned something during those years that has stayed with me throughout my career in newspapers, marketing, and community service.

Real change happens through relationships.

It happens when people sit across a table from one another.

It happens when they listen.

It happens when they care enough to get involved.

It happens when neighbors become more than people who happen to live on the same street.

They become a community.

Today, I sometimes find myself wondering what we have traded away in the name of convenience.

Convenience itself is not bad.

In fact, I have spent much of my career embracing technology. Through Hometown Digital Marketing Agency, our newspapers, websites, podcasts, text alerts, email newsletters, and video platforms, I have seen firsthand how technology can help us connect with more people than ever before.

Technology has created incredible opportunities.

But every opportunity comes with a question.

What are we losing?

Technology has also touched my family in very personal ways. It was instrumental in helping with my father's cancer diagnosis and my mother's health issues. More importantly, it has played a critical role in developing and guiding their treatment plans.

For that, I am incredibly grateful.

Advances in medicine, communication, and information sharing have improved countless lives and continue to do so every day.

Today, we can order groceries without speaking to a cashier.

We can shop without visiting a local store. (I admit this one is harder for me. My friends know I secretly love searching for the perfect gift and would probably enjoy being a professional gift concierge if such a thing existed. Who knows? It may end up as one of my future "ventions," which is what I call those ideas that are part venture and part intention.)

We can stream entertainment without gathering in a living room.

We can work remotely without seeing coworkers. (Our team has been doing that for more than 15 years. Some of our best employees live hundreds of miles apart, and technology has made that possible. Great talent doesn't always live in the same ZIP code. While I personally believe everyone should choose Putnam County, some choose other locations for reasons beyond their control. The ability to work remotely has allowed us to build stronger teams and create opportunities that would not have existed otherwise.)

We can ask artificial intelligence questions that once required a trip to the library or a conversation with a teacher, mentor, or expert. (I already date myself when I ask photographers for the "Paula Abdul effect" on my pictures. My fellow Gen X readers are nodding right now. Thankfully, I haven't started asking for a card catalog in the background... yet.)

We have never had more ways to communicate.

Yet meaningful conversations seem harder to find.

Many people know what is happening around the world but struggle to know the names of the people living on their street.

Disagreements that once happened across a table now happen through screens.

Community organizations, churches, volunteer groups, and civic clubs across the country often find themselves searching for the next generation of participants and leaders.

That should give us pause.

Communities are built through relationships.

Churches are built through relationships.

Businesses are built through relationships.

Families are built through relationships.

And relationships require something technology can never fully replace.

Presence.

Listening.

Conversation.

Time.

As technology continues to advance, I believe these human skills will become even more valuable, not less.

The strongest communities of the future will not simply be the most technologically advanced. They will be the communities that remember how to be neighbors.

They will be the places where people still volunteer.

Still mentor.

Still serve.

Still gather.

Still sit across the table from one another and have real conversations.

They will be the places where people know one another's names, celebrate one another's successes, and help carry one another's burdens.

Technology should help us connect.

It should never replace connection itself.

Perhaps the challenge before us is not to reject convenience, but to make sure convenience does not become a substitute for community.

The older I get, the more I appreciate the lesson hidden in the title of that little newspaper from years ago.

Neighbor to Neighbor.

Not screen to screen.

Not profile to profile.

Not algorithm to algorithm.

Neighbor to neighbor.

Because at the end of the day, the strength of a community has never been measured by its technology.

It has always been measured by its people.