Community-
In my Communication 125 intro to internet class, My professor Derek Lackaff defines community as a social institution, comprised of people who identify as a group.
Virtual/Online Community-
Wikipedia defines a virtual community or online community as a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet. Online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other in real life. The dawn of the "information age" found groups communicating electronically rather than face to face.
There are millions of communities from offline to online. I am currently in so many different communities, but the online community that i like the most, has to be MySpace.
Myspace-
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. MySpace also features an internal search engine and an internal e-mail system. Created in 2003, MySpace is currently the world's sixth most popular English-language website, and the third most popular website in the United States. In my opinion, MySpace is definitely one of the largest online communities.
MySpace can be used for numerous reasons. MySpace can help you stay in touch with your relatives and can help you reunite with old high school or college friends by just typing in their full name. MySpace consist of emails and instant messages so you can communicate with others. It also has blogs, where people can post whatever they would like or whatever that's on their mind and have their friends look at it and comment on it. Forums is another huge thing on MySpace. There are so many different forums on so many different topics, so anyone can just go check for a forum they like and go chat about it with other people. Ever since MySpace has been created, it has been known as the site where anyone anywhere can communicate and interact with other people, whether you know them or not. I actually use MySpace almost every single day.
Negatives and some Positives-
But even though there are so many different ways to communicate with others on MySpace, it still has it negatives. So many people have MySpace and anyone can lie about how they look or who they are. Its so easy to put fake pictures up and people can act a certain way online but in person, their character is totally different. Some people say that online communities can also be very difficult to build social ties (relationship) with others. Not seeing the other person face to face can make it very difficult to build a friendship. All people do is type back and forth. They don't meet each other for lunch or see each other during the day. The only time they can communicate is when they are both online. You cannot see the other persons facial expressions, or hear their voice. You can only see letters and words that they are typing to you. how can this be a real community without having a real social relationship with others?
I don't like to discuss my social life to everyone but i slightly disagree with the Non-building of social ties through online communities. I have actually made some close friends on MySpace; all of them are women. It is so much easier to speak to a person online rather than face to face. We would chat for a while and really get to know each other better. Then when we both feel comfortable, we would exchange cell numbers. Then we would set up a date to meet for lunch or dinner. I have met a lot of women online and i have a variety of relationship ties with them. In some ways social ties can be difficult to build with someone online, but in other ways if you feel comfortable with the person and have a lot of conversations with them, then a close a relationship can be made.
Similarities and Differences-
My online communities are similar and also different to my offline communities. It is easy to have a conversation, play games, meet different people and learn different things on bother my online and offline communities. But a big difference between the two can be first impression. You actually see the person face to face on offline communities rather than online. Offline communities also allows you to build social ties much faster than online. But it is easier to discuss private things online rather than actually telling a person face to face on your offline community.
Whether it is an Offline or Online community, it is still looked at as a community; a group of people who has something in common and enjoy the community that they are in. If they didn't enjoy it, then they wouldn't be in it.
References-
Virtual community/Online community, from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 20 March 2007, from
Myspace, from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, 23 February 2007, from
Community, University at Buffalo class- Comm 125UB, 19 March 2007
Professor Derek Lackaff, 20 March 2007, from
Gotta be in the 9AM class ;-)
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