READING 2 Making Connections Using Meetup

Members of a Meetup group gather to watch birds.

MAKING CONNECTIONS USING MEETUP

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold. 11.3

Would you like to meet people whose interests are the same as yours? Maybe you like to knit and would like to meet with other knitters. Or maybe you’re interested in the theater and want to find people with whom you can attend a play. A website called Meetup lets you do that. Unlike most social networking groups, whose members communicate with each other online, Meetup members actually meet each other in person. Most Meetup members want to get together just for fun: to play chess, discuss books, ride their bikes, practice French, etc. Some Meetups are support groups: people get together with others who have the same problem. For example, there are Meetups of people who have lost a spouse, or parents whose children have a serious disease. Other Meetup groups are for the purpose of career networking. As of 2019, there were about 39 million Meetup members in almost 200 countries.

Meetup was the brainchild1 of Scott Heiferman, whose idea for creating these communities came as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Heiferman stated that the manner in which the people of New York City came together in the aftermath2 of that traumatic3 event inspired him. He wanted to make it easy for people to connect with strangers in their own community. He created Meetup in 2002.

Meetup connects people online so that they can meet offline. Anyone can start a Meetup. Meetup believes that “people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.”

1 brainchild: an important idea or project of a person 2 aftermath: the result of a tragic event 3 traumatic: psychologically harmful