All of us belong to communities; in fact most of us belong to several. Communities are important aspects of our lives. Similar to offline communities, online communities allow us all to meet with people who share similar interests. The internet acts as a mediator within groups or communities. According to the article, Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? , the authors agree that the idea of "community has been long recognized as having a central place in our social fabric.” The main structure behind a community is communication and without communication there can be no action to organize social relations within a community. With the popularity of the internet today, virtual communities have become an even bigger part of the online world. A virtual community is a group of people who interact via Internet Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, email, discussion boards or forums; also called know as a online community (Dictionary.com). Online social networks have provided a new and organized method for social networking.
Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow us to network by using the Friend process, choosing people first and interests second (Boyd). Facebook is a social networking site I use frequently and it allows us to find friends as a way of networking. Facebook allows people to communicate and connect with new and old friends and exchange information. Facebook profiles allow us to gain information about people without actually meeting them first. When compared to offline communities, online communities also allow us to choose what people know and what information is present in their profile. Facebook profiles contain basic information about a person like a name, sex, religious and political views, interests, and activities. Facebook originally began in the college setting and so a profile can also list a student’s college along with their course load. A profile allows you to see how much you have in common with others, helping to establish or improve your social network. We can get to know a person without even speaking to them.
Online communities differ from the type of communication a person uses when face to face, for example expanding your social network. We can choose to associate ourselves with someone or not.Those of us who have Facebook or MySpace accounts understand that we are able to choose our friends. Belonging to social networking sites allows for individuals to pick and choose how they want to be presented to others. In face to face communication it is much harder to pull off. We are allowed to choose our friends by searching through our interests, college or school, or even by deciding who to accept as a friend. Offline social settings don’t necessarily allow us to pick and choose. Also internet communication allows us to be friends with people we necessarily wouldn’t be friends with in real life.
Communication within social networks is also different when you compare online to offline communication. Facebook allows people to message and comment on each other’s walls. Or for other online communities it may be blog comments, bulletins or simple Instant Messaging. Online communities allow us to send and receive messages and we decided whether we want to respond or not. Communication over the internet is convenient ways for most of us and unlike offline communication, individuals online don’t necessarily have to address or respond back to their friends and visa versa. Communication online also allows us to express how we feel more freely. With the lack of face to face communication people are more willing to say how they really feel about something, often times effecting social ties within a group.
The basic principle of a community is that it is a shared environment between people with common interests. A virtual community is a social network with a common interest, idea, task or goal that interacts in a virtual society across time, geographical and organizational boundaries and is able to develop personal relationships (Wikipedia). Socializing whether it is online or offline is a major part of our everyday lives. We all need to communication and to develop social ties.
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Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure?
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