SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNITY CLUBS IN PROMOTING SOCIAL INTERACTION IN THE CURRENT AGE

Abstract

Community Centers (CCs) play a crucial role for the Singapore government, in disseminating information, policies and promoting national identity. They also provide residents with physical facilities and activities. Hence, CCs have been considered essential nodes in the heartlands, to promote social interaction and increase social capital amongst residents. However, there is a gradual decrease in physical interactions amongst the population today. This can be mainly attributed to the recent birth of social media platforms and the World Wide Web, which has allowed residents to ‘interact’ with others through the online realm. Coupled with the onset of the Coronavirus disease outbreak, society is forced to interact less. Thus, this study aims to analyze the significance of CCs in the current age. Two neighborhood CCs, mainly Clementi and Punggol, were selected for the study. A structured questionnaire was directed at residents found at the CCs, revealing their number of visits, and indicators for social capital via their levels of social interactions at the CCs. Analysis of the data was done through independent samples t-test and one-sample t-tests. The results showed that CCs are still essential for residents to create significant relationships with others, and that the number of visits to CCs were significantly affected in the current age. There was no significant difference on how different Community Centers could cause differing levels of social interactions. Thus, policy makers and urban planners should still incorporate CCs in the future heartlands to meet the social needs of residents.