We’re talking about Canadians in this specific instance, so maybe the CSIS - Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Probably watching for anti-Canadian behavior, like eating regular bacon or buying milk that doesn’t come in a bag.
When my parents lived in Sun City their street was called Signal Butte. My mom would get amusingly annoyed (amusing to me) when she’d get spam calls from people pronouncing it Signal Butt.
Yes, I’m certain that virtual interaction is not social. You can’t read faces on a text or hear tone of voice to guess what they really mean, i.e., are they being sanctimonious or sarcastic? It is very anxiety inducing.
That’s what they want you to think.
I’ve never taken more than a pickup truck worth of stuff on any move, and have never paid for movers. Part of that is I’m not a big “stuff” guy, some of my childhood belongings are at both parents and storage (parents both have large on-property storage buildings), and most of the stuff I do have is not really worth paying to transport.
We don’t really interact with our neighbors, but we are the old folks on the block (I’ve been here 20 years, my wife and kids 15). My “day job” is overnight and I also work in my home office. I do go out on my deck and get sun and exercise in the yard, but it’s during the time of day most others are at work or school. My wife does not really leave the house other than errands and she specifically avoids anxiety-inducing interactions. My son is homeschooled and our oldest is in online school.
I grew up with social anxiety (80s/90s), dropped out or was kicked out of several schools, hospitalized, etc. Same with my wife. Virtual communication HELPED me a great deal in improving my life. Now middle-aged, I find it so strange that I seem comparatively LESS avoidant than many of my peers and most of the kids.
Honestly, speaking as someone (barely) under 40- I don’t think it’s a change in people’s ability to socialise, so much as people’s willingness. Especially when it comes to people who you have nothing in common with aside from physical location.
Most people I know my age expect to be moving round a lot, not settling down for a few decades or the rest of their life. And it’s not that we’re scared of talking to the neighbours, we just don’t care about making the kind of superficial not-really-friendships that were considered standard polite practice in a Nice Neighbourhood by previous generations, especially if we plan to move on again in a year or five.
Some places I’ve chatted to some neighbours, when they seemed nice, but I’ve utterly ignored others, because we didn’t seem to have anything in common. I don’t think I’ve lost out on anything from failing to have some brief dull, shallow conversations with people I might see maybe a few times a year.
Millennials and younger are typically a lot more resistant to doing stuff just because ‘That’s the way things are done’.
I may be old school, but I think it’s a good idea to have cordial relations with your neighbors. At the very least to keep an eye on your place when you are away. I am not saying hang-out together and have beers, but just enough contact so each would know if something was not right.
Oh yeah, I am a firm believer in “OK, LETS JUST GIVE EM SOMETHING TO SEE” works for me, we can just put on a show!
Eh, I’m 60 and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten beyond the casual wave/acknowledgement stage (if that) with any of the neighbors I’ve had since I moved out of college dorms. I know I’ve had a spate of interactions with the current nearest neighbor because we each bought our places in a similar timeframe, but I don’t remember their names.
I’m very selectively social, and I really prefer to be on my own for the most part.
Americans don’t have “neighbours”.
I know the immediate neighbors, even their names (!), which has not always been the case. Even better, none of them are weird or borderline psychopathic, which has not always been the case either.*
*I was recently reminiscing about Lawn Mower Man, who lived a couple doors down from us in Ohio, and had a bad case of lawn fetish. During the season (which lasted an especially long time in his case), he was out there intensively power mowing at least twice a week.
He was a psychiatrist.
Then there was the semi-recluse who confided to us that he imported large snakes to his property from the Missouri River basin, in order to control rodents in his messy, overgrown yard. Another South Dakota neighbor had decaying deer heads in their yard and family members could sometimes be seen carrying unconscious people into the house. Ah, memories…
I was thinking “Fright Night.”
It’s not just “polite”, it’s practical to know your neighbors. Your neighbors are a cheap security system – it’s not that uncommon in my town for burglars to be scared away when a neighbor notices an unexpected van and calls the police to check it out. (I call my neighbor before calling the police.) Neighbors catch dogs that got loose and return them. Neighbors return misdelivered mail. Neighbors bring in packages when you are on vacation, so they don’t sit out in the rain and advertise your absence.
In another thread, someone related getting a text from UPS saying his package was delivered, seeing the UPS man leave his neighbor’s place, and going over to fetch his package. A couple days later he got a visit from police: the neighbors’ ring camera recorded him removing a package from their door. That wouldn’t happen to me. The neighbors would have called me (they have my number) and i would have explained, and they’d have laughed.
Neighbors sometimes coordinate to save money on tree work and stuff, too.
I just noticed the house next door is for sale. When new neighbors move in, i plan to bring them cookies or something, as an excuse to introduce myself.
I never spoke to one set of neighbours- I still phoned the police when I saw someone breaking into their place…
It has to be one or the other?
When i saw men in an unmarked white van entering my neighbor’s house i called the neighbor. They were delivering an appliance.
They can’t have been Mounties. Spoons would have noticed the hats.
I think it’s both good for me and interesting to occasionally have conversations with people with whom I appear to have little in common. I’d think it would get boring to only communicate with people who are as like me as possible.
I like to spend a lot of time on my own; but not all of it.
I’m going to hazard a guess that they weren’t prying a window open and climbing in…
Yep. People complain about Gladys Kravitz knowing their business but that has a good side as well.