Name: Community-maxxing.

Age: The portmanteau is recent, but Homo sapiens have always been social creatures.

Appearance: Cosily communal.

Community-maxxing? But I thought I was supposed to be solo-maxxing! Well, that means being single, so you could do both.

Explain. Community-maxxing is seeking out regular in-person connections around you, often tied to shared interests. Vice reports that gen Z are “done doomscrolling” and are getting out in the world, sharing their passions, interests and “grandma hobbies” with like-minded folk by joining book groups, crafting circles, hiking and run clubs.

You’re telling me gen Z have invented socialising? There’s more to it than that. Community-maxxing is also being a good neighbour, feeling part of the place you live in and being open to new connections.

Can you give an example? At this summer’s Boomtown festival in the West Country, a group of Bristolian festival-goers welcomed Adam James, a young autistic fellow raver, who was attending his first festival alone, into their group for three days. They unquestioningly accepted James, giving him what he described as the best weekend of his life. “It’s what the community’s about, really,” James said.

OK, that’s lovely. Good on gen Z. Community-maxxing is a way of combating loneliness and digitally enabled isolation, which are really problematic for their generation. “On an average day in 2023 one in 10 US young adults did not spend a single minute interacting face-to-face with another person,” the Financial Times reported earlier this month. Over here, Office for National Statistics research published last November found 33% of 16- to 29-year-olds felt lonely “often, always or some of the time”.

That’s bleak – no wonder they’re craving connection. Yes, humans are social creatures – we need each other. “Community-maxxing … has become an accepted term in recent years to describe what therapists have known for decades: that individuals require repeated, quality social interaction to assist in developing a feeling of grounding and support,” therapist Stephanie Lewis told Vice.

That’s true of everyone, surely, not just the youth. Yes, community-maxxing isn’t just for kids. You might have noticed there’s a renewed interest in communal living these days, from multi-generational shared spaces to co-housing projects and communities for older people.

Hmm, I don’t think I’m up for joining a commune: I’m very particular about my towels. You can community-maxx however you like, in big or small ways. Suggestions online include “ask to borrow a tool instead of buying one”, “become a regular volunteer” and “chat to the person sitting next to you at your local cafe”. You could join a choir! Fix stuff at your local repair cafe!

Fine, but I still hate the word. How about IRL-core, community-coded, going social-mode, or people-pilled? We could get a group together in a nice local cafe to workshop this.

Do say: “Gen Z are realising it takes a village to be a happy, fulfilled human.”

Don’t say: “Sorry I missed pottery club – I’m solo-maxxing, so no one woke me after sleep-maxxing, and after fibremaxxing, skin-maxxing and gym-maxxing, I was so tired I sleep-maxxed again.”