A Virtual Community By Rene Lysloff

Community, what is community? How would you define it? Community can be defined as a geographic location in a way that a group of individuals live in the same area like a neighborhood, a city, a district, a town, or a country. In simplest terms, it is where you live. However, individuals can also feel a sense of community through the place where they grew up or where they often go and visit. It can also be a group of individuals who have certain characteristics in common such as religion, race or ethnicity, culture, beliefs, professional and economic ties, interests, and more. Individuals refer themselves to particular attributes or affinities (what individuals like to do). For example, individuals say I belong to an Asian community or I belong to an art community. As such, community bestows one a sense of identity (who people

The virtual world has its strong points. This statement is true and undeniable. Indeed, social networks are an excellent way to connect people worldwide and let them share their thoughts and ideas. However, I cannot agree more to Gladwell’s thesis.

Esther Dyson’s ‘Cyberspace for All’ was an article found in the New York Time. Esther delves into what was an incredibly popular topic at the time in 1995, the government’s control over the internet. Dyson relates the internet to real estate, and a ‘new frontier’, she also claims American’s love the ideals of the frontier life. She makes many supported arguments for the government's hand to be removed from the net, in such, creating a free space for all. She explains that before someone goes online they are choosing what they want to view, which supports her anti-censorship beliefs. Dyson elucidates the evolution of fathomable communities’ relation to that of cyberspace and their similarities.

To me, community is a group of people working, living and being in the same local area or place. The idea of a community as virtual would mean to include a community of people sharing social and common interests, ideas and goals (perhaps) via a social network. What it means for our society is that communities are connected virtual throughout society.

Community A community is a group of people interacting in a meaningful way with regard to something they share in common. It used to be that a community, in order to function as a group and interact, had to be in the same geographic location or at least within driving distance. Since the internet has now become so widely available we find that people with common interests and goals are reaching across vast distances to interact with each other. There is even language translation software available that can translate other languages into one's own.

The term "Community"

In the end the advancements of computing have led to significant impacts on local communities. People can now exchange information online from the comfort of home rather than scheduling in a time and place to meet up in the real world. People can group up and classify themselves, and their work, within their respective communities through online social networking. The use of computers has already made such significant changes, to the local world that mankind can only wonder what future impacts will be

Abstract: Burton Speakman’s research focuses on how community functions in the digital sphere. The study of community grows in importance online as media transitions from being less vertical (mass) to more horizontal (person to person) delivery of information with the expectation of interaction and increased public influence due to social media and sharing technology.

For the young generation, in particular, the online relationships are as influential and evocative as the face-to-face relationships. In addition, as broadcasting and broadband technologies are being accessed by more and more people, the swiftness and suppleness with which the world inhabitants are communicating and socializing (both online and offline) is increasing day by day. As far as the virtual space is

1. “Imagined communities,” according to Anderson, are a form of speech communities created by the mass-production of shared media. They are “imagined” because members will never meet all other members face-to-face. The Morgan piece on speech communities begins by describing a music video, which itself begins with two rappers speaking on the phone in different languages in different countries.

I select one of Rheingold’s recommendations from “ Virtual and Communities: Norms for members and advice for Host’s ” that is helping you easily become a community member. The recommendation is “ Do those four things- know the territory, assume goodwill, jump in wherever you can add value and reciprocate- and you’ll succeed as a virtual community member.” And, the reason from “ Creative ‘ Communities ’ : How Technology Mediates Social Worlds ” is Tom had started with some raw source material, a picture of Interpol’s Lead singer. He wrote. “ it was a nice picture I found so I decided to trace it.....so it looks like a comic or Something....” and he had published it on the forum, so Chavo offered some suggestions as it “ looked a bit odd ”. After

Certain networks have become a place where we discover friendships, talk about issues & find others who share our interest. They have replaced opportunities for social interactions. There are different kinds of interactions that take place via networks. Interactions can now be free from biases that usually come with direct human interactions because race, gender, class & physical appearances are hidden. In a real community people can have a sense of shared responsibilities that doesn’t seem to exist on the internet. There tends to be no sort of commitment with virtual anonymity.

The second concept I want to talk about is virtual communities. Virtual communities are social groups whose interactions are mediated through information technologies, particularly the internet. Like modernism, virtual communities are very dependent on technology and the internet. Since science and technology has advanced in the past decade, people don’t need to go to different places to meet different people and can meet others over different social media platforms or even video games. Sometimes, those people met over the internet can become very close friends. For example, I play a lot of video games and I have acquainted myself virtually with many people playing those games. Some of them I even ended up meeting in real life and are still friends with today. Virtual communities have become such a social norm, that soon, people will have friends all over the internet. I think the aspect of virtual communities is good for society, because it allows people to have a greater awareness of other cultures all over the world. With more insight of how other societies and cultures operate, there is a greater chance to expand one's own social

Communities are affected, and in a sense defined by, forces that affect community members and their space. The forces can range from outside organizations such as the government and large corporations … These components of the community vary infinitely, and thus no two communities are the same; even a given community is not the same over time (Cnaan & Milofsky, p. 1)

Although imagined communities was an intriguing concept that was demonstrated during my analysis, it was not the most compelling observation I made during my time in the Loafe cafe. Other than judging the behaviour of the people in the cafe, I also decided to evaluate the