Like every medium also internet has large, unconnected audience and members are divided by space and time. So internet can be a very useful tool for maintaining existing relationships and also can be used for making new friendships. In both we use computer mediated communication (CMC) which is closely connected with virtual reality. So we can say that internet is connecting people in communities and that is what we call virtual communities. Very simple definition of virtual community is that it is consequence of CMC where communication flow between unknown people which has in common some similar interests, needs and wishes. So for one virtual community there must be just one thing that participants have in common. This can be anything, from hobbies (like photography), music or film to parenting, gender (like female or male virtual communities) or studying. But the main question is how virtual communities are really created in comparison with offline communities?
I will use some ideas from book (which is actually MA paper) Skupnost, identiteta in komunikacija v virtualnih skupnostih (in English this is Community, identity and communication in virtual communities) from Tadej Praprotnik (he is professor of communication and new media on Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis (ISH) – Ljubljana Graduate School of the Humanities). And I also recommend this book for all who are interested in virtual communities or wish to write paper about them. Unfortunately this book is not translated in English.
Author is suggesting that virtual communities have two features that are copied from offline culture to virtual. First is that virtual communities are never created as something new, because they are founded on basis of preliminary formulated communities. The main motive for participation is wish for belonging to group and this wish is same also in offline life. Second (and in my opinion very important) is that virtual identity is not as free as we all think (you know the famous "On the internet nobody knows you're a dog"). Virtual identity is shaped with values, biases and meanings from everyday offline life so this all have impact also on virtual life. So virtual communities are somehow just derivatives of ideological pre-virtual setting.
But why are virtual communities so attractive, not only for users but also for researchers? In my opinion the main attraction is anonymity and lack of social pressure. People on internet can be what they are. They can be happy, shallow or even racist. If one community does not accept them, the other will or even they can make their own virtual community. Entrance in virtual community is so much easier then in real life, so much quicker and also even exit from it is possible. All you need is computer, interest and people. Commonalities can emerge later.
But why are virtual communities so attractive, not only for users but also for researchers? In my opinion the main attraction is anonymity and lack of social pressure. People on internet can be what they are. They can be happy, shallow or even racist. If one community does not accept them, the other will or even they can make their own virtual community. Entrance in virtual community is so much easier then in real life, so much quicker and also even exit from it is possible. All you need is computer, interest and people. Commonalities can emerge later.
I agree about anonymity and reduced social pressure, but I would also include identity formation, because reduced visual cues and lack of information about other participants enables them to adopt different identities, sometimes not even remotely close to those in the real life. On the other hand, when visual cues are reduces, participants focus on the text itself: The structure, rhetoric and for example use emoticons to convey their mood, (dis)approval etc. Adam Joinson among others, wrote some interesting articles about that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree on the part about entering and exiting virtual communities – it is much easier to initiate or terminate communicative interactions that in the real life :)
I wonder how did we come so far...Personal contacts just aren't as important as they used to be. We don't even say hi to each other. I started thinking about that many times while being in public place when everyone was talking on cell phone and not to real people in front of them. And we chat on Facebook and Skype but we don't take time to meet in person. This is why we loose contacts with people and there is an urge to meet people online, even if we will never meet...at least we have feeling that we belong somewhere...
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