Without chatting daily in the street with their neighbors, more and more citizens are connected to their neighborhood through Facebook groups. Has our local social fabric become essentially virtual?
One evening in May 2021, Isabelle Lussier went out on the balcony to put out her barbecue. His Yolo parakeet, which was perched on his shoulder, then took flight. To find her, she had the reflex to contact the Facebook group “Hochelaga MON Quartier”, which brings together more than 32,000 people, mostly residents of the neighborhood.
Then began a small benevolent hunt for the yellow animal. “The next day, three people wrote to me because they thought they had seen my bird. It was at the corner of Chambly and Ontario streets, one kilometer from my home. Someone had fed him. I went running and he was gone, ”she says.
A man who had seen him even looked at his side, provided with a cage, but the bird was still eclipsed. Three days later, she finally received the message from a woman in Longueuil who had taken Yolo under her wing. The bird had crossed the St. Lawrence River to find itself idle at the marina. Incredible, but true, because it was indeed his companion who, even weakened, amused himself by repeating sentences like “Yolo the beautiful boy” and “I love you”.
The lady in question had found the owner through her publication in the Hochelaga Facebook group.
“I couldn’t believe the help I had received. People’s support has kept me hopeful, ”says the woman who works in sound mixing at the National Film Board.
Beautiful stories like that of Isabelle, Geneviève Tardy sees many pass in a year. This is largely what motivates her to continue since 2017 her volunteer involvement as administrator of the neighborhood group, which is one of the largest in Quebec.
“I find it beautiful, mutual aid on a daily basis. If you need food aid or a wheelchair, if your car is stuck in a snowbank, there is always going to be someone there to respond. I have never seen someone not get what they were looking for, ”says Mme Tardy.
Danielle St-Louis has published several calls to find a home care attendant. Good Samaritans have thus come to lend a hand on an ad hoc basis, but she still lacks a stable worker, much to her dismay. Unfortunately, some people who have shown interest in him have failed.
Dominic Laperrière-Marchessault, on several occasions, donated objects such as clothes, plant cuttings, books and food through this platform. “It goes very quickly. If it is not the same day, it is the next day, ”reports this employee of the Planetarium and the Botanical Garden. “A lot of people in the neighborhood are having trouble making ends meet. It is a great tool for exchange, solidarity, sharing. “
Create a social fabric
According to Geneviève Tardy, the group helps create links between the various socioeconomic groups in the neighborhood.
“With the phenomenon of gentrification, if we generate segregation, the conflict will increase. People have to be able to talk to each other, we have to listen to each other, ”judges the one who teaches at CEGEP and university.
Members also share jokes, news and photos of the neighborhood. Elected officials and community organizations can reach many citizens there.
But to keep this ecosystem running smoothly, the five administrators are working hard. They approve more than 1,000 posts per month and delete around 50.
“It’s often the first thing I do in the morning and the last I do in the evening,” admits M.me Tardy. “It’s a social responsibility, and I take it very seriously. To find new directors, we conduct interviews and give an hour-long training on how to manage the rules of the group. Commercial or for-profit advertisements, as well as hate speech, are notably prohibited.
The administrator believes that similar groups could be beneficial for all neighborhoods. They already exist in several other neighborhoods in Quebec.
“Center-Sud MON Quartier”, founded in 2018, is also inspired by that of Hochelaga. “It brings a lot of answers to the questions people ask themselves,” notes Sophie Giroux, who also manages the group on a voluntary basis.
The latter now has more than 3,000 members, all of whom are “very respectful”, according to the mother of three. And this, even if the contentious subject of gentrification and the construction of condos is recurrent in the discussions.
Other existing groups include “Limoilou: our neighborhood, the best of all! “, In Quebec, which has more than 16,000 members, and the page” Friends of the rue Saint-Vallier “, which has nearly 4,500 subscribers for a single street in La Petite-Patrie. There are also the multiple pages with the wording “Spotted”, on which Internet users share and comment on situations they have witnessed in the neighborhood.
Another well-known fact, in the past year, Facebook launched the Neighborhoods feature, which allows people to talk specifically with their neighbors. The Nextdoor application also aims to foster local relationships.
The real and the virtual complement each other
Are we doomed to have our neighborhood life now take place on the Internet rather than in the street? Is there not a paradox in living so close, but in communicating virtually? And how to explain this hyperlocal interest on the Internet, when we have access to people from all over the world?
It is true that our sociability space is less local than in the past, explains sociology professor Madeleine Pastinelli, from Laval University. “Fifty years ago, we went to live next to our sisters-in-law and we had close relations with our neighborhood,” she says.
Often times, the virtual is an extension of the real, and they feed into each other.
However, the concrete material life of everyday life brings humans back to their immediate environment. “When we lose our cat or dog, when we want to know where to park our car during snow removal, we are brought back to the local reality. This is where the digital platform is used to recreate this connection with the neighborhood, ”analyzes the sociologist.
In addition, we must not put real life in opposition to the virtual world, according to Stéphane Couture, professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Montreal.
“Often the virtual is an extension of the real, and they feed off each other,” he explains. Thus, web platforms can facilitate the organization of in-person events, such as a group dinner or cleaning an alley. “It’s easier than handing out flyers or putting up posters on a bulletin board,” says Couture.
By going to look for a piece of furniture from your neighbor you met on the Internet, for example, you may be tempted to get to know better and reimagine the world, or quite simply your block.