It's a sad irony that in this time of web 2.0 and social networking, the fastest developing and most successful communities are online - yet the individuals tapping away on keyboards until the early hours are doing so behind locked doors and security gates within the real communities that are no longer safe to walk around at night. Is this just co-incidence?

On the day we moved in to our new place I was completely overwhelmed by introductions from our new neighbours from up and down the street - one of which included an offer for me to become the Community Warden for the next 12 months or so. Well - what could I say? I said "I'll think about it." That was five weeks ago - and now every time there's a knock at the door I tense-up and ignore it. Whoever they are have usually gone 10 minutes later.

The thing is - I like the idea of getting more involved with the community - but I lack the skills. How to speak with people you have nothing in common with - apart from living in the same street? What to talk about with people much older and wiser? What's the appropriate level of personal information to impart - without becoming the laughing-stock of the local pub? 

It's so much easier in the virtual world - we have the ability to reinvent ourselves - select the neighbours on our virtual street - and perhaps more worryingly block or ban the individuals we don't want around. And it's all achieved in seconds. No need for difficult or prolonged conversations, no effort required for understanding opposing opinions - when we can simply block them out!

Yet in a real life we're not afforded that "luxury" - and I would argue that's a good thing. Life is infinitely more complex. When you move house you are literally thrown into a group of random people in all their glory; the cool, the uncool, the old, young, weird, boring, and damn right nasty - and you can't choose who's going to move in next door.

But communicating within these parameters are no longer skills that come naturally to me - and to some extent fill me with a sense of fear. And I think people of my generation and younger are also missing out on developing the skills that could make their local community an even better place to live - the skills of simply talking and, perhaps more importantly, listening to people whose only point of commonality is a shared postcode.

So, will I be the community warden? Probably not. Not yet anyway. But I am now making a conscious effort to speak with my neighbours - and I can sense that for some it's as awkward as it is for me (but that could just be my conversational topics But I will say, that with each conversation it gets a little bit easier; the local area - begins to feel a more pleasant and secure place to live. And so now, checking all the doors are fully secured before I sign-in to Facebook - no longer has the priority it once used to.