BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Hyperlocal online communities like Spotted in Bowling Green on Facebook have a powerful presence shaping conversations and spreading information.
With more than 130,000 members, Spotted in Bowling Green’s growth and presence in the community has skyrocketed far beyond what Founder Jordan Gibbs imagined.
“It’s definitely its own monster at this point,” he said.
He began the group in 2021 as a way to amplify the public’s voice, to foster connection and for people to post things they spot around the city.
“It started out with me kinda driving around and just taking pictures of funny things I’d seen and signs for events,” Gibbs recalled.
Now they get hundreds to thousands of posts a day, all moderated by a small group of people. On top of their nine-to-five jobs, administrators take turns throughout the day approving or denying post requests.
One of those admins is Gibbs’s close and trusted friend Matt Douglas. He’s watched it grow since the start and finds moderating the group much more stressful now, especially when considering what should be approved.
“A lot of people in the group think just because we approve something that we agree with it or support it, but we try to stay completely neutral, freedom of speech,” Douglas said. “We allow a lot of things that we don’t agree with.”
Apart from inappropriate or highly controversial items, admins approve many posts, recognizing that they want to value freedom of speech and minimize censorship. That means there’s a wide range of content.
Many posts involve supporting small businesses, searching for lost items, pets or people, and looking for recommendations on lifestyle choices, jobs and things to do around the area.
Douglas said small businesses have even reached out to thank the group for their post because it boosted business.
However, there are plenty of more serious or controversial posts, such as crime or vehicle accident sightings.
While the information can be handy for those in the area, Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower warns that what you see may not be the full story.
“Social media will take over and then people will then begin to fill in the gaps, whether those are truthful or not,” Hightower said.
Hightower also urges people to be mindful of what they’re posting, especially when it involves vehicle accidents. When there’s a fatality, they want to ensure family gets notified before they see anything online.
Negativity and arguments are also something admins look out for. Douglas explained that while probably 70% to 80% of post requests are positive, people may observe more negative posts and comments because the more you look at it, the more Facebook’s algorithm believes you want to see it.
He said admins only review comments if they’re reported.
Assistant Professor of Marketing at Western Kentucky University, Kate Nicewicz Scott, pointed to research showing that people tend to speak up and react more often during negative experiences, and that when a subject is polarizing, there tend to be stronger opinions.
While community groups are a valuable tool for sparking connection and sharing information, Scott worries about the spread of misinformation and the common courtesy of respect, especially with a new trend of people valuing immediacy.
“We forget that there are people on the other side of the screen,” said Scott. “We’ve gotten so used to distancing ourselves and isolating ourselves and communicating just through social media that we forget that there is another perspective.”
She recognizes that the admins have a tough job of moderating -- walking the line between making a platform for people’s voices to be heard and making sure it’s respectful and appropriate.
“It’s important that they just keep top of mind that everybody has an opinion, and everybody deserves for their opinion to be heard,” Scott explained. “As long as it’s communicated in a respectful and appropriate way, I think that these can be platforms for really productive conversations that we’ve gotten away from.
Gibbs and Douglas believe the positive, rewarding community connection outweighs the negativity and stands by the notion that Spotted in BG is “the unfiltered opinion and the voice of the city, the pulse of the city,” according to Gibbs.
He is now working on a website that will be similar to the Facebook group, where people can find community resources, but without all the “noise.”
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