Use the Internet to Lose the Internet

Anna and the forester hiking by cascade falls on Mt. Ascutney / Photo by Deborah Lynch

It’s Sunday. Take a hike! The carrot in going for a long hike with a group of strangers has to be pretty good. That’s why the organizer of The New England Hiking and Social Group meetup added the words “Social Group” to the group and advertises a hike up Mt. Ascutney with a rendezvous at at Harpoon Brewery at the end. She says that some members just like meeting for the drinks, but for those who go on a 4-hour mountain hike, everyone can afford the calories from the beer at the end.The brainchild of Scott Heiferman in 2001, Meetup.com has helped more than 10 million Americans with shared interests find one another through the internet in more than 90,000 local Meetup groups for activities of all sorts. More than 220,000 meetup groups exist in 181 countries. They make exploring the outdoors safer for singles and offer special interests groups for things like game nights and woodworking, for speaking Spanish, meeting other young entrepreneurs, and creative writing, among many others. Heiferman and his partner Matt Meeker noted both the decline of civic groups, the lack of community, and New York City residents’ desire for community following 9/11. Since then, groups of all types have sprouted. Researchers analyzing meetup groups in different metro areas found that the meetup groups somewhat define regional interests and stereotypes. For example, the Bay Area has the most tech meetups, New York has the most fashion groups, and D.C. shows its multiculturalism.One of the early master users of meetup.com were supporters for failed Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont. No one expected him to do anything in the election, but with the surge of blogger support and meetup groups, he raised more money via the Internet that any candidate in 2004. "We fell into this by accident," Dean told Wired reporter Gary Wolf. "I wish I could tell you we were smart enough to figure this out. But the community taught us. They seized the initiative through Meetup. They built our organization for us before we had an organization." His community promoted his campaign via Meetups, which eventually totaled more than 140,000 people in 600 locations. This of course interested the media, and the more the media wrote about it, the more it fueled voters to join his meetups. Dean didn’t win his party’s nomination, but he helped to change the modern campaign, much like the Nixon-Kennedy debate in 1960 ushered in the TV era of campaigning.Television usually can’t help people meet other people though, especially if they are sitting home alone in front of the TV; maybe watching sports with others in a bar could lead to a friendship, but in general, TV and the internet are not the answer. Meetup founder “Heiferman says that America faces a ‘loneliness epidemic’ that is, in part, a result of modern technology,” Dan Kopf writes for Priceonomics. His goals with meetup are noble. Someone can move to a new area and easily do a meetup.com search to find a group that shares similar interests. Seeking solutions for my daughter’s loneliness in a tiny, rural Vermont town (800 year-round residents) led us to Meetups. She signed up for several, including the New England Hiking and Social Group.Today, we hiked those four hours up and down the side of Mt. Ascutney led by a “teacher-minded” mail carrier who formed the group. She proudly told us that she has completed the NH48 – all 48 4,000-foot peaks in New Hampshire. She wasn’t a fast hiker, but she was a motivated one who pointed things out for the safety of our group of 10. She emphasized that while we could break off into smaller groups of four, she wanted us to stop frequently to rejoin because after all, the purpose of a meetup, was meeting, talking, and getting to know one another. A fellow hiker who worked for the forestry department obviously knew his way around the mountains, stopping to point out the edible Indian cucumber root, old growth and new growth, trillium, and more. Anna and I kept his pace at the front of the pack for the first two hours, but then he and another guy at the rear tired of the slower pace of the rest of the group, and continued to the summit without us. Anna and I decided to stay with the slower contingent so we could meet others, and of course, because we were ready to turn around after two hours so we could get to that payoff at Harpoon.We made a sound decision. We met Brigitte, an engineer from Connecticut with whom we could share stories about Iceland; Mark, who was on the hike with Diane, who he had met a a music festival last summer; Gretchen, a special education teacher who loves opera and was looking for hiking partners; Susan, a grandmother from New Hampshire who enjoyed skiing and the outdoors; and Mike, who showed us some of his cool hiking gear including an ultraviolet water wand that he said he could put into his water bottle and swish for 30 seconds to purify the water while retaining the mountain stream taste he loved. We passed Gail on the path on our way back down. She recognized Diane and yelled out as she saw us approaching, “Ten o’clock was way too early for me. I’ll hike to the falls, then turn around and come join you at Harpoon.” She was good to her word, showing up in time to eat with us and share more stories.It was a convivial group of singletons who gathered together on an overcast day to enjoy an authentic walk in the woods. After leaving the group, Anna and I explored the Path of Life garden next to Harpoon, where we meandered through the stages of life as illustrated with labyrinths, teepees, charred wooden tikis, lilac and blueberry gardens, a hammock strung between trees by a trickling stream, bee hives, and a nod to contentment with a statue of Buddha. In the gift store, I bought some Chakras so I can learn how to keep my energy flowing freely, and Anna bought a small track survival pack. Diane’s meetup group had piqued her interest. She came home to search more meetup groups and to look for more activities she can join. I can leave Anna tomorrow knowing that she will continue to explore and that within the comfort of meetups, she will not be so alone.

Works Consulted

Kopf, Dan. “What Meetup Tells Us About America.” Priceonomics. Priceonomics.com. 12 Jan. 2016. Web. 22 May 2016.Touby, Laurel. “Meetup.com: 10+Years Organizing Thousands of Groups.”  CBS Moneywatch. CBSnews.com. 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 May 2016.Wolf, Gary. “How the Internet Invented Howard Dean.” Wired. Conde Nast. 1 Jan. 2004. Web. 22 May 2016.