The Content Of Online Media

Communities play an essential role in the development of the self and learning about the stranger. Through communities, individuals are able to socialize and create a greater understanding of each other. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls describes the community of which she felt most part of during her childhood. Walls says, “. . .

Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.

I personally believe that William James’s description of the relationship between community and the individual is remarkably insightful and accurate. It transcends time and illustrates the close symbioses that they share; one cannot exist without the other, though the individual holds a lot of the power in the relationship: they have the power to redefine community and change definitions- altering relationships and cultures to suit their needs. Community is an ever-changing, malleable force that allow humans to have the connections and friendships needed for survival. Together, the Individual and the Community are unstoppable forces of change and

The term "Community"

individuals all perceived community as places that people come together. The way that I view

In our society where every mundane act seems to be presented by users on social network platforms for the rest of the world to see, a new phenomenon has began called “fitspo”. Fitspo stands for fitness inspiration, which is what users are doing when they post photo updates of their workouts, and diets, along with joining online groups to encourage each other to maintain healthy lifestyles. Interesting to note, “The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified a lack of encouragement, support, or companionship from family and friends as a major barrier to physical activity. To overcome this barrier, online social networks are now actively leveraging principles of companion social support in novel ways.” (Nakhasi, A., Shen, A. X., Passarella, R. J., Appel, L. J., & Anderson, C. A. M., 2014) Overcoming this barrier can be much

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.

The Holy Trinity of modern social media. All content shared on any contemporary social networking site flows through these conduits, and especially through photographs. Recent studies show that Instagram, a social media built around the sharing of images,  bolsters nearly 500 million users and exhibits no signs of slowly down. This shift of images becoming an integral tool in the realm of social media places an inherent importance on the nature of the pictures being shared. Susan Sontag emphasizes the gravity of photos by writing, “Photographs lay down routes of reference, and serve as totems of causes: Sentiment is more likely to crystallize around a photograph than around a verbal slogan.” As more and more young people flock to this social network, a phenomenon known as FOMO takes place. The fear of missing out has been described by scholars to be an “apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.” For example, others are far more likely to experience this feeling when their social medias are bombarded with updates about vacations, weddings, and numerous other events of genuine happiness, creating an anxiety within users taking in these posts that something must be wrong within their own life if their life does not match the ones on their

Community will only exist when relationships exist based off the concept of shared fate. The following phase, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” is the unselfish act of sharing, looking out for each other children

Implicit simply implies the problem, letting one ponder and figure out the facts for themselves. Whereas, explicit straight out tells one the problem, giving all the facts, then telling one to decide.

In the digital era, local and global spaces are inconsequential because of technological tools (de Moragas Spa, Domingo & Lopez, 2002; Howley, 2009). Social interaction is one of the primary terms that help define community (Bell, 1979). Even within digital communities, shared location is one potential identification point for members of a community (Hollander, 2002). The hybrid community is an interesting combination because people tend to engage more online with those with whom they have offline relationships, and hybrid communities do allow bridging within groups and potential bonding within groups in terms of social capital (Ellison et al., 2011). There are similarities between community media and digital community networks (Hollander, 2002). Online community can serve as an alternative to the traditional public sphere; it can be a place for members of a physical community to discuss issues that are important locally (Murillo, 2009). Community journalism online acts in the same way as print outlets, with both providing members of a community with a location where they can share the important elements of life, including births and deaths (Murillo,

Community has many advantages that go along with it; these groups may not be particularly easy to create and sustain, the organic, spontaneous, and informal nature makes them resistant to supervision and interference (Wenger, 2000). Unfortunately, with every accomplishment there must be some sort of downfall. As described in Nathan’s, My Freshman Year, “big community” has

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)

Social media is quickly evolving in front of our eyes and it is almost impossible to reject and hide from this new form of media. Not only is it an important part of socialization within peer groups but now it is used to market and motivate people to become a part of a larger community. It is undeniably changing the way one communicates and how one finds and shares information. Most websites offer communication through the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and many various blog formats. With new apps on smartphones and photography and video made digital, media can be created, edited and shared quickly and once it is in this new digital cloud it is not yours anymore. Through these new advances in technology one can share things

Why are we constantly sharing? To answer that question, we need to look at the underlying grasp of constant connectivity. Today’s society has the most connection than any before. Our technology and the internet have shaped our culture in such a way that it is almost a requirement. In this day and age, finding someone who is not connected in any way is few and far between. Social media is a major player in the connectivity of our world. With the more than 1.8 billion daily active users on Facebook, 300 million active daily users (with 500 million monthly) on Instagram, and twitter with 313 million active monthly users, this allows for insurmountable points of connectivity between users, and for the sake of this paper, countless amounts of media (images/videos) being shared (Twitter) (Instagram)