Our screen-filled reality is killing civic life. ‘Join’ us for new film about it | Opinion

In recent years, many of us have started experiencing our civic lives through our screens.

National media, politics, and technology all encourage us to “get involved” by reacting to national headlines, sharing opinions about people we’ve never met, and endlessly refreshing our feeds to see the latest controversy.

Of course, it’s good to be aware of what’s happening across the country, but the way we do it has made how we participate much worse. It’s replaced acting locally with reacting nationally. We’ve become commentators in a system built for participation, often without noticing how much we’ve lost our sense of agency in our own communities.

We weren’t built to live this way.

From the beginning, America has been an experiment in self-governance. The promise of our country has never been that government will solve all our problems, but that we the people can solve problems by showing up for our neighbors, working side by side, and improving the places we call home.

At CivicLex, we’re trying to help people find that sense of ownership at the local level. We teach residents about local issues, connect them with the officials who make decisions, and create new processes that better value our community’s involvement. We believe that if people understand how local civic life works and feel that their voices are truly important, Lexington will be better positioned to solve local problems. We talk about this as having strong civic health.

But having strong civic health is about more than government. It’s also about knowing your neighbors and spending time together at potlucks, practices, or volunteer nights.

Robert Putnam, author of “Bowling Alone” and “The Upswing,” spent decades studying American civic life and what happens when people stop gathering socially in groups like softball leagues, Rotary, and the YMCA. His research showed that joining these everyday community groups helped people develop the habits of listening, compromising, and doing things together. He also found that when those networks shrank, our habits of cooperation shrank too. It’s easy to see the challenges that shrinking cooperation brings all around us – but the consequences feel especially dire when we’re in a crisis.

This is what inspired a new event we’re organizing at CivicLex.

On Nov. 6 at 7 p.m., we’re partnering with more than 30 local clubs and organizations – from Lexington’s Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis clubs to birding groups, cycling clubs, and roller-derby teams – for a community screening of the documentary “Join or Die” at The Kentucky Theatre. The film follows Putnam’s work on social connection, exploring how the simple act of joining a group can strengthen the fabric of our communities.

This film screening is an invitation to join.

We want you to join a neighborhood association, a run club, a knitting circle, or a church group – and if you can’t find a group, start one yourself. Not everyone needs to join the same club, but everyone should join something!

If you can’t join us for this film – or join a club – consider this: maybe the path out of our division isn’t more politics at all, but building more groups people actually want to join.

Richard Young is the Executive Director of CivicLex. Learn more at civiclex.org.