Scott Couey

Looking for "true community?" Watch reality tv shows like Big Brother and do the opposite!

The subject of “community” has been on my radar lately. A couple of weeks ago, the sermon at church was on community. I am also starting two new community groups – one that I will be leading and another in which I am participating (a mentoring group for community group leaders). When I look up community in the dictionary, four of the definitions really stick out to me:

1. “A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.”
2. “A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the): the business community; the community of scholars.”
3. “A group of men or women leading a common life according to a rule.”
4. “Similar character; agreement; identity: community of interests.”

One of my latest guilty pleasures is the reality television show Big Brother. If you’ve never watched the show, it’s basically a group of people whom have never met and they have to live in a house together under the watchful eye of “big brother” (the American public). Each week there is a competition that determines who becomes the “head of household” and that person has to nominate two other residents to be considered for eviction. Residents then compete in another competition for “power of veto” and whomever wins this competition is able to veto one of the nominations or keep them as is. At the end of the week, all house guests must vote to evict one of the people who ends up on the chopping block. Once the competition is down to two people, the previous eliminated house guests vote on which of the remaining two will receive an enormous amount of money.

Needless to say, this show is a VERY bad example of  how a community should be:

• Individuals on the show form alliances against one another – in community you must be willing to work together as one unit.
• There is a lot of back-stabbing that occurs on Big Brother – members of community should not turn on each other.
• Big Brother contestants are caught frequently calling one another names – those involved in community should encourage one another and not embarrass or put down others in the group.
• Greed seems to be a common theme on Big Brother – those in community want to see everyone succeed in the group and actively celebrate those times with them.

If your “community” were to be filmed for a reality show, would it be like Big Brother?

Photo Credit: By Elaine Ashton