Reducing Loneliness & Social Isolation
Website Recommendation: Nextdoor
During these unprecedented times, the COVID-19 global pandemic, we are all struggling with socially distancing from our friends and family and dealing with the efforts that come from being stuck at home. Whatever your situation, loneliness and isolation are worryingly prominent in our current global identity. So, TPAS Cymru want to show you the power of digital communication, especially during these lonely times. We introduce you to the brilliant website: Nextdoor.
Nextdoor, launched in 2011, is a social networking platform that works based on your specific location. Once you enter your postcode, and answer a few simple questions, you can then interact with your local community, anyone in your local area that is also using the platform.
The platform harbours a positive community vibe, a safe space. It is diverse and a range of topics and discussions are available. Some examples include ‘Lost & Found’, ‘Events, ‘For Sale’, ‘Business’ and ‘Crime & Safety’, amongst others. Not only can the app help you access local events and gatherings, but it can also help you find business or even help you find your lost phone.
However, we cannot go out much for the foreseeable future and gatherings are prohibited. So, how can Nextdoor help?
Nextdoor can be seen as an online community – essentially your local community, gone digital. Whilst we struggle to see our friends and family face-to-face, Nextdoor can be your easy access to normality – giving you access to not only those close to you, but even those you only pass on the street and say “Hi” to. Below is a recent example of how this platform can help bring us together as a community:
At 8pm every evening, people of the UK are taking to their streets to clap, cheer and play music in celebration of our wonderful NHS and emergency services who are battling the ever growing Coronavirus. Nextdoor was used to organise this ‘event’ and spread the word. For example, Ruby our Digital and Communications Officer, was outside her front door when the clapping begun on the 26th March and only joined in because she realised what it was for, but didn’t know exactly. If she had gone onto Nextdoor, she would have known!
We understand that adapting to the digital world isn’t easy for everyone, but Nextdoor is so simple to use. It doesn’t use a fancy website design that is difficult to navigate. It is simple multiple choice or short answer questions. Perfect.
At TPAS Cymru, we have met many landlords that use Nextdoor to keep in contact with their tenants, using the phone app version of the website. This makes the website more readily available and easy to chat to tenants from anywhere around the world.
Additionally, the brilliance of Nextdoor, and its unique selling point, is that it works solely on your specific location, only giving you access to your location’s community. Therefore, your newsfeed is streamlined, not clogged up with pictures of your friends’ roast dinner!
At this time we must come together however we can. The digital world gives us access to not only close friends, but a large portion of our local community.
Embrace the digital world. Give Nextdoor a go and stay safe!