The Cure for Pandemic Isolation Is Low-Stakes Neighborhood Drama
Your local Facebook group is more than a way to score half a bag of cat litter
Recently I nipped my online shopping habit in the bud, and here’s my secret: Instead of buying new stuff, I post the stuff I no longer need on my local Buy Nothing Facebook page. Somehow, it scratches the same itch for small-scale change — and watching the tote bags full of old duvet covers and too-small sweaters get picked up off my porch is far more satisfying than waiting for something new to arrive in the mail.
There are currently thousands of Buy Nothing groups around the world, some on Facebook, others in person or on different email lists, and fairly strict rules have evolved over time: Everything must be gifted. No trades are permitted. Any item can be posted, though some will really set a community aflutter. (My friend Emily, who lives in Kansas City, told me that on her Buy Nothing group a member caused a stir when they offered up two used sex toys that they noted were “dishwasher-sanitized.”)
There are plenty of misty-eyed odes to Buy Nothing and its noble missions of the gift economy and getting to know your neighbors. I agree, wholeheartedly. But what this group has really really provided for me is something even better in pandemic times: the…
