We, in the media, love to glom onto new ideas and run with them irrespective of if it actually makes sense. A big example of that is the concept of community. Brian Morrisey over at The Rebooting in his sum-up of 2021 did a nice job explaining how overhyped the concept of community really is:
I plead guilty. True communities are incredibly valuable for those able to put themselves in the middle of them. But most claiming a community – or calling their subscription a membership – are just putting lipstick on a pig. My test of whether you have a community is whether the people in your audience want to connect with each other because that brand represents a point of view. Most communities are audiences.
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