"the social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace."Other elements help define virtual communities. Virtual communities can exist within an electronic village, and often many virtual communities can help make up an electronic village, but virtual communities are more communication and people oriented, while electronic villages are hardware, organization and connection oriented. There are many elements that make up a community: births, deaths, fights, reconciliation and gossip. All of these are vital and needed parts of a virtual community as they are in a physical community. Sites that display these traits are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter & Tumblr, people become addicted to their online community and often stray away from their actual real friends.
Since virtual communities exist through computers, they are dependent on computer networks. Without computer networks, virtual communities would be just like any other common civic, professional or hobby related group that meets on a regular basis. Virtual communities are groups of people with a shared interest in a hobby, profession, or a product who get and share ideas online. The sharing is done at the convenience of the participant.
As with anything, virtual communities have both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- The technology has the power to bring enormous leverage to ordinary people.
- Provides a forum for people to discuss topics of interest.
- Allows participation at the convenience of the participant.
- Text based.
- Allows participation by many different people from many different places.
- Hides race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, etc.
- Promotes interaction with others that can lead to physical meetings.
- Provides a sense of anonymity.
- Some arenas are moderated.
- Not a broadcast medium.
- Media is not "fixed".
- No built in opinion restraints.
Disadvantages
- Requires knowledge of reading and writing and typing.
- Discrimination is different, but not absent.
- No built in opinion restraints.
- Easy for a few to dominate discussion.
- Obtaining network access can be a problem.
- Must have a computer, or access to a computer.
- Takes time.
- Possibility of losing touch with reality.
- Difficult to navigate and find items of interest.
- Some arenas are moderated.
- Media is not "fixed".
- Text based.
- Provides a sense of anonymity.
What do you think? Are virtual communities dangerous? Or a good way of communication?
I agree that there are both valid points, both good and bad. People are relying on these sites for communication with other people when they are neglecting their real friendships in 'the real world'. I think there should be restrictions to how much time people can spend online.
ReplyDeleteI feel that virtual communities are an important part of modern life as people who have similar opinions on specific subjects can talk with ease without physical appearance altering the conversation. The only problem I have is that it makes it very easy for negative communities to get a group together easily, like the riots in London.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you can see that both positives and negatives have valid points. I agree that people are neglecting their real friendships, but I don't believe you should put restrictions on how much time people can spend online, because I think that would cause problems. I also can see that it can bring people closer together, and that it can help people who prefer the online conversation over interacting in real life.
ReplyDelete