Virtual Communities

I will now give my two-cents on this weeks reading.

The word ‘community’ is flung around often in this article. Flew notes that it is a warm and persuasive word; one that never seems to be used unfavourably. It’s true, I for one associate ‘community’ with words like bonding, relationships, common interest, safety... For example my online community consists of friends and relatives on facebook, and I suppose my online contacts on MSN (which I hate to admit, is still my guilty pleasure). Similarly, a male acquaintance of mine is an avid follower of Neil Strauss (creator of “the game”) and belongs to a closed virtual community. It’s basically a forum for Brisbane pick-up artists involved with “gaming” to swap advice and experiences. My curiosity got the better of me and I tried to log on once – much to my dismay, it’s locked and you cannot join unless you’re invited/initiated (by the way, this happens in person… another example of online and ‘real life’ cultures converging!).

I got thinking about this. They all seem pretty full of themselves, which is why I assumed the community was locked… on the other hand, after reading Flew’s article I wonder if maybe they are just trying to remain exclusive. What I mean is, it’s quite common for communities to be infiltrated by those with a dramatically different point of view, often to upset the other members. (In this case, that would have been me!). In further support of this, I can incorporate one of the sites I found via del.icio.us (See? It all comes together now!). In Boyd’s Social Technology and Democracy, he coins the term ‘homophily’ online, to suggest that people with common interests join the same online communities. This yields positive and negative repercussions… He uses an example in the text of when an online community of cat lovers were infiltrated by a “tasteless” website. You can just imagine what happened there.

I love the way I can type an area of interest into google and find websites and forums full of like-minded individuals. Furthermore, I like cats and am sympathetic of the online attack from the so-called “tasteless” website.

Cats

Regardless, I can’t help but associate closed/locked online communities with the word “segregation”. It’s unfortunate that some communities are infiltrated, however, that’s the way the world is… We all have differing opinions! I am of the view, and Boyd’s article supports this claim, that virtual communities become disjointed from the “real world” if they lack balance. I will go one step further to suggest that this is when they can become dangerous (more on this further on).

Boyd provides an example for lack of balance; the Berkley Anti 54 movement. Many Berkley students protested this online, however they were clustered together in student communities; specific to their college. This created an 'eco-chamber' of similiar views and didn’t allow the movement to reach the mainstream media. Boyd claims that despite convergence culture, micro-cultures can form and trap users into a segregated online cluster.

Flew also discusses this notion. He mentions that for some people, the internet is a way to escape social situations in which you could feel awkward, by only connecting to like-minded individuals. In a political context, this can mean creating “electronic equivalents of the gated communities and architectural barriers that offer the well-to-do freedom from troubles associated with the urban underclass". My interpretation of this is that the internet can deliberately create new means of segregation. This could actually increase the upper class power struggle and vicariously, continue to oppress those underprivileged or in the minority. This can segue nicely into a ramble about the digital divide but I will save that for another time.

Last but not least, I question the term “community” in a virtual context. Sure, it offers like minded people a chance to share advice, thoughts and ideas, but what about in a morally unacceptable context? I am going to dwell on this for the time being.

References:
Flew, Terry. (2005). Virtual Cultures in Flew, Terry, New media : an introduction, Melbourne: OUP, pp.61-82.
Boyd, D. 2005. Social Technology and Democracy. http://www.danah.org/papers/ExtremeDemocracy.pdf (accessed April 12, 2008)