I joined the app Nextdoor sometime in 2019, but took a hiatus from the app until recently. I signed on to Nextdoor to inquire about some cheering and banging I heard around 7 p.m. one evening. What I saw on the app was quite shocking.
Nextdoor’s website says that the app is designed to connect neighbors for the purpose of sharing information, goods, and services. Nextdoor believes that “by bringing neighbors together, we can cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on.” (source: https://about.nextdoor.com/) That’s not what I saw on Laguna Beach’s Nextdoor. Posts that were along the lines of Nextdoor’s purpose were buried by posts that had hundreds of comments of people arguing, belittling, and bullying one another.
We live in a country where we are allowed to share our opinions without persecution. It’s hard not to feel on edge given the world’s current state. Most of us are dissatisfied one way or another with how things are being handled. But should we be taking it out on our own neighbors?
I adopted the philosophy that in most cases there’s no point in arguing with someone whose opinion is different from my own. People should be allowed to have their own opinion. However, we should also be having healthy discussions with opinions different than our own, as it’s how we grow as people and become more empathetic as a society.
After spending some time on the app, I found myself throwing my own philosophy out the window. I was putting myself into conversations where I didn’t need to be involved. I felt awful every time I logged off the app. I was behaving in a way that I didn’t like. In order to better my own mental health and prevent myself from acting out on the app, I decided to step away from the app all together and delete my account.
With other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you can pick and choose who to follow. I assume most of us choose to follow people and accounts whose ideas align more closely with our own. It’s not possible to do this on Nextdoor. Although this can be a benefit, I was seeing a community that I no longer wanted to be a part of. So I walked away.
Camille Ring, Laguna Beach
Thank you for sharing this. They are my sentiments exactly. 💯
Glald I am not the only one to feel this way. Thanks, I am deleting old posts and requested permanently deleted account.
How do I delete my account so that I am off of their list?
NextDoor is a garbage dump. Every neighborhood admin operates differently. Some are too likely to censor, and some too little. It’s best avoided.
Is it true that NextDoor gives to or in some way supports the organization BLM?
As a whole, Next Door doesn’t support any political movement. HOWEVER, the community groups apparently have no rules. The Next Door group in my area has become a haven for anti-vaxxers, homophobes, racists & misogynists. I deleted the app & walked away.
Dont worry…. It’s exactly the same here in Houston….a meeting place for drama kings and queens as well A dumping ground for toxic opinions and comments. Plenty of bullying shaming blaming and anger gaming.
I thought it was odd that Nextdoor allowed an 8 day discussion on masks, pro and con. People that cited the CDC, factual studies and personal experiences with Covid were removed, myself for a month. Those that emphatically stated vaccines were safe and exaggerated the Covid cases as deaths and minimized vaccine reactions got to stay. I do believe that it was ND administration that allowed the posts to get overheated , personal and ugly, just to do a fell swoop of account suspensions, as a power move.
On a different note: their new “Connect with friends” is nothing more than group think on steroids. “We’re all in this together” has become “we can bully you in groups, now”.
Please assist me to get off this dreadful ‘DO NOT SPEAK YOUR MIND OR ELSE’ Neighbourhood thing.It is SO BIASED and
Is ‘TUNNELED VISION’THANK you
I just quite Nextdoor. I became too intense and it should be “fun” not a battlefield.
I just shut off all notifications from the site except emails. My upstairs neighbor sends me messages through it occasionally, but I can no longer take all the racists on there.
So wrong
It only took one opinion,in which was mine.Freedom of speech?Not on Nextdoor! First my account was disabled for 2 to 3 weeks and I had no clue why.The day I was allowed to log in again, I was able to talk to one of my new Nextdoor friends and “Bam”and the following day,my account was “INDEFINITELY CLOSED” This group is a joke!!
If you disagree with BLM you’re racist, with the Dems you’re red-pilled, with gender-transitionibg kids you’re transphobic and mysogenistic, with tax-snd-spend liberalism you’re a corporate reactionary, etc. There is very little tolerance on NextDoor, all for the purpose of keeping the money flowing to its’ administrators.