Website creates online community for your actual community

I know that the whole idea of replacing real-life friends with internet-friends isn't that new.  People are always criticizing social media platforms for doing just that.  Personally, I don't think most social media platforms actually replace real-life friends at all.  They aren't substitutes for having a life, but aids to having a life.  I am an avid user of facebook, because it's an easy way for me to keep in touch with my friends and make plans so that we can get together in real life.  I see people in real life just as often, if not more often, as I did pre-facebook, and I get to keep in touch with acquaintances, business contacts, and people who live far away.  I'm sold!

Enter Share Some Sugar, a site designed to help you find neighbours how have things you need for renting or borrowing.  The creator says:

3 years ago I moved out of an apartment into my fi rst home. Moving into your fi rst home is not only a big, scary deal, but once you move in, you realize that you don't have 'house things' like a set of tools, a lawnmower, a ladder. I thought it would be silly to go out and buy things like a seeder or rake when I knew that one of my neighbors had one. The problem was, I didn't know who had what.

I thought to myself, "what if there was a way to know who had what in your neighborhood?". A way for you to see your neighbor's inventory, and share and borrow things rather than buy them. In the meantime you would get to know and trust more of your neighbors. You'd feel like you actually live in a community. Like the good old days when you would knock on a neighbors door to see if they would Share Some Sugar with you.

And so the light bulb went o ff and I created Share Some Sugar, where you can knock online instead. We hope you enjoy your experience with Share Some Sugar. We would love to hear your feedback so we can improve the site to be a better experience for you and your neighbors.

Does this strike anyone else as hilarious?  Personally, I see two reasons for hilarity: first of all, an internet community for your actual, real-life, geographical community?  I'm pretty sure the term "internet community" was coined in the first place to make people feel like various websites were mimicking their actual neighbourhood community.  Now it's come full circle.  Come on, that's FUNNY!

Secondly, it's hilarious because he's RIGHT!  When I was a kid we knew all our neighbours.  Someone new would move in and their kids would play in the cul-de-sac with us, Moms would send over some foodstuffs, and parents would stand in the sidewalk chatting on warm evenings.  We even had block parties! It was so easy, so natural - we didn't wonder what kind of people our neighbours were or if they had things or how to meet them, we just did.  We didn't even think about it.  Now I don't know any of my neighbours and if I do need, say, a cup of sugar, I am more likely to give up on my baking project all together before I'd knock on a neighbour's door and ask for one.  When I used to do that all the time!  Literally! 

So this is what we've come to.  We can't even knock on our neighbour's doors for real anymore.  We need to use the internet as a platform to meet the people who live right next door.  Sad?  Awesome?  Meaningless?  I don't know.  Hilarious?  Yes.

(PS: On this note, I am trying to figure out a way I can meet the really attractive people who moved in next door... anyone have any suggestions?  Maybe they're on this site?  Probably not.  It's kind of lame. I bet their on Plenty of Fish though, if only I could figure out a way to narrow that down by geography.)