Forget WhatsApp or Facebook groups if you want to keep in touch with your neighbors and stay on top of the neighborhood goss. "NextDoor" is the next big thing for all the Flanderses out there who can't wait to hit their neighbors with an "Okily dokily!", some petty complaints, or a suspiciously prejudiced hot take.
In the U.S., 13% of all adults use "NextDoor," which is about 220,000 neighborhoods all across America. In 2024, researchers from New York University and the University of Michigan studied "NextDoor" users and compiled a comprehensive portrait of "NextDoor" communities.
They found that "NextDoor" users are more often those who live in sparsely populated areas. These residents are also more likely to be white, wealthy, older, and more educated.
But what do people on "NextDoor" actually talk about? It's not all nonsense and ridiculousness like what you see on this list. The researchers from the 2024 study found that there are three main topics that people usually post about on "NextDoor":
- Posts offering or seeking services or goods,
- Posts about perceived suspicious persons,
- Lost pets,
- Transportation issues,
- Events,
- And pleasantries, such as wishing happy holidays or celebrating the current weather.
Posts about supposedly suspicious people are most likely to get the most engagement, and most of us can imagine why. They account for only 6% of all posts on "NextDoor," but are the most worrying because they might encourage radicalized community surveillance.
Sometimes, law enforcement agencies are present in "NextDoor" communities. Again, it's probably not surprising that this more often applies to non-white neighborhoods or communities where income inequality is greater. At the same time, they're also present on "NextDoor" in neighborhoods where the residents have higher incomes and the real estate value is higher.
Sometimes, law enforcement agencies are present in "NextDoor" communities. Again, it's probably not surprising that this more often applies to non-white neighborhoods or communities where income inequality is greater. At the same time, they're also present on "NextDoor" in neighborhoods where the residents have higher incomes and the real estate value is higher.
A co-author of the paper, Megan A. Brown, says that it's hard to explain why law enforcement is more present in non-white communities. "They could be there to better engage with the community, to facilitate surveillance by community members, or some combination of the two." However, the researchers warn that it might drive neighborhoods towards racial profiling and vigilante surveillance, resulting in bias from law enforcement.
Although it sounds really scary, that might just be the nature of any social media platform. As researcher of anthropology Sydney Yeager explained to the Baltimore Banner, most online spaces push us to extremes and groupthink. "We are invited to create divisions much more quickly and without thought, because again, there are no consequences for it and nuance requires more work than algorithms often allow."
What is "NextDoor" doing about this? They have a kindness reminder feature that spots offensive language and encourages people to edit before they post. The app can also detect potentially inflammatory content. Users themselves can also report racism, misinformation, or problematic neighbor profiles to the Neighborhood Operations team.
