Your friends and…neighbors?

Before there was LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or the internet at large, there were block parties. There were casual chats on your front stoop. There were, in short, your actual, physical neighbors.

If, like me, you live in a city, you probably don’t know the majority of your neighbors. And in the suburbs, where fenced-in yards replace parks and cars replace subways, you can be even more socially isolated from the people around you.

Of course, we have more options than we used to. Online gaming, social networking sites, forums and chat rooms offer the possibility of making friends all over the world. Still, wouldn’t it be kind of nice to walk down the street and know the names of the people you pass? Maybe even meet up with some of them based on common interests?

Now Facebook — part of the online social networking that enables us to totally ignore our neighbors — offers the Your Neighbors application, courtesy of developer Nathan Blecharczyk.

When I first saw this, I laughed, I admit it. I thought this was some kind of virtual neighbor, created, like (fluf)friends, to mimic something you didn’t have in the real world. I figured Your Neighbor would occasionally poke you and ask to borrow a cup of virtual sugar (which you can earn by taking this very quick survey, or just selling your soul).

Instead, the application turns out to be a mapping program that shows you other Facebook users who live near you, including how close they are. Using this app, I’ve already discovered two writing groups and a workout partner in my neighborhood.

Of course, being Facebook, this app offers a privacy setting that lets you see who’s out there without them seeing you (unless they’ve got the same privacy setting enabled). But this level of protection doesn’t really jive with the spirit of the app.

Various tabs let you look at the community profiles of your neighbors, check out the competition in different neighborhoods, and find events happening near you. It’s kind of like having a genuine community newspaper, full of people who have a lot in common with you and news about events you might be interested in attending.

If you don’t like Your Neighbors (the app, not the people), you can also try Neighborhoods, which doesn’t offer the events but does provide real estate listings, which are kind of a de facto event in my city. Each neighborhood is set up with its own profile, complete with wall and photo section.

Neighborhoods has 19,555 users and Your Neighbors only 1,260, but the real test will have to be made neighborhood by neighborhood, since the only way you can successfully use these apps to meet people is by finding a lot of users in your area.

Got a preference? A quibble? Leave ‘em in the comments.

Like This Post? Subscribe to Our RSS Feed and Never Miss Another Post!