In a poll conducted at the end of last year, Pew Research asked about online connections to communities and neighbors and found that in the 12 months preceding their survey:

• 22% of all adults (representing 28% of internet users) signed up to receive alerts about local issues (such as traffic, school events, weather warnings or crime alerts) via email or text messaging.
• 20% of all adults (27% of internet users) used digital tools to talk to their neighbors and keep informed about community issues.

Overall, physical personal encounters remain the primary way people stay informed about community issues. In the 12 months preceding our survey:

• 46% of Americans talked face-to-face with neighbors about community issues.
• 21% discussed community issues over the telephone.
• 11% read a blog dealing with community issues.
• 9% exchanged emails with neighbors about community issues and 5% say they belong to a community email listserv.
• 4% communicated with neighbors by text messaging on cell phones.
• 4% joined a social network site group connected to community issues.
• 2% followed neighbors using Twitter.

This got me to thinking about my own community…

I grew up in the “big city” and only just recently (well, okay, five years ago) moved to a small town. I chose the small town for the affordability, the lack of crowds in the city and because I fell in love with the house I eventually bought. What didn’t occur to me when I moved to the small town was my lack of knowledge about what was happening around me. I knew all about my previous home cities and was involved, at some level, in my community. That all changed when I moved to the small town.

To give you a sense of how small my town was when I first moved here: I was known simply as “the little girl who bought Bill Gaudette’s house.” I know Bill Gaudette from the closing meeting for my house and have seen him exactly once since then. Nice man, but not exactly a close friend.

I felt very disconnected and everything felt like an inside joke that I simply wasn’t “getting.” In order to try and get up to speed on my new chosen home, I started buying the local newspaper (still only fifty cents, what a bargain!). That helped with the surface information but it wasn’t really giving me the back channel information that I was missing. Then I started watching the Board of Selectmen meetings and that gave me more insight into this town but not everything.

Then I attended my very first town meeting. Having lived in the city most of my life, with a representative form of government and voting polls, this was a completely different way of life. It is truly the original form of democracy and I love it. What I did not love, however, were the unwelcoming vibes from some of the townies. While at town meeting, I happened to overhear two women talking about me. They didn’t know who I was – and, at the time, I didn’t know them either – and they were truly appalled that “an immigrant outsider” (yes, that’s what they called me) was allowed to vote at town meeting. For the record, I am now and have been since I moved here, a registered voter in my town so I have every right to vote. In fact, it’s my civic responsibility.

Then I started hanging out at a local restaurant and turned to the internet and that’s where the back channel came to life. In those two places, I rapidly learned who the major players in town are; what the burning issues are; and a whole host of other tidbits that made me love this town even more.

Five years later, while I’m sure that some of the folks who were born and bred here still think of me as an immigrant outsider, I feel like I am a party of this town and what is happening. Without the local bloggers, business owners, and the new friends that I’ve made here, I would still be in the dark and probably would have moved.

When looking at the high-level findings of the Pew study, I realized that I used all of the tools to learn about – and get involved with – my adopted hometown.

Maybe one day, I’ll be the cranky lady at town meeting wondering who the uppity immigrant is who dares to have an opposing view to my own. I just hope that newcomer uses all of the tools available to them to get up to speed and contribute to the growth and prosperity of this small, American town.