Are people able to use Nextdoor in ways that enhance neighborliness? Does the app actually help you to “get the most out of your neighborhood” (taken from Nextdoor’s homepage)? I recall Rosaria Butterfield mentioning in her book The Gospel Comes with a House Key that she uses the app to learn about needs and opportunities in her neighborhood. But whenever I open the app, I mainly see people venting about their neighbors. Such is typical on Nextdoor: Noise complaints; doorbell footage of sketchy salesmen or package thieves; arguments over fireworks and their effects on anxious animals; self-promotion; selling junk; and so on.

Perhaps I’m missing something, but this seems to me like a classic example of a technology nudging its users in a certain direction. Is it possible to use Nextdoor in a way that leads to convivial relations among local users? Sure. But to do so is to work against the grain of the app itself. Ian Bogost, writing about Nextdoor in The Atlantic in 2018, said, “If Twitter is where you fight with strangers, and Facebook is where you vie with friends, then Nextdoor is where you get annoyed with neighbors.”

If you still want to use it, be my guest. But make sure you’re clear-eyed about the default direction that Nextdoor wants to go. If you’re not careful, you’ll drift down stream in no time.