10 Years of Community

AirBnB is a behemoth international company. Referring to themselves as a community strikes me the same way as Starbucks calling themselves a community. While there are many touching stories to be had, the company's existence can make it more challenging for local communities to thrive. They can do the opposite as well, one could postulate, but they are merely a cost savings measure and communication platform.

P.S I've already expressed a negative attitude, but what an unsettling image to open this page to. If I wanted to be encouraged to scroll down the page, why not make it one of the photos of real people, rather than the photo of 3 tech dudes patting themselves on the back? Nothing against them personally, I don't know them, but if Facebook wanted to convince me that their platform is a community, they probably wouldn't show me a photo of Mark Zuckerberg's cold lifeless face the size of my entire laptop screen.

These stories are touching and these people who have opened their houses and helped people in need are saints. They'd be doing this with or without AirBnB. The image these men present is one of being at the farthest possible distance from the people in the stories they talk about. There is no character. There is no personality. The mountain called monkey had spoken.