Assignment #7 - Community...Not For Me.

Personally I really don't belong to many groups completely mediated by the Internet. I have a screen name and e-mail through AOL, our blog we use in 125, i have my e-mail address here at school and other then that I have a Facebook account but I rarely use it, so for me this is probably the toughest blog yet. I'm not into online gambling or playing fantasy football, i don't shop online anymore, because of a bad experience, and I definitely don't go online dating. I guess I just never really got into the whole Myspace, Facebook hype. To me they just always seemed like more trouble then they were worth.

Wikipedia defines community as a group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. For me I've always thought of community more along the lines of the physical relationships in your life, not the virtual ones. The ties that are formed between people who share the same interests can become very strong and trusting over time, no matter what realm you are in. Over the Internet you can be whoever you want to be and like anything you want, but in real life, face-to-face interactions it is easier to tell if someone is just going through the motions or if the are really passionate about what they are talking about.

To me this is a community




Not this




I believe that a community can encompass anyone from anywhere as long as they have the same interests, even though an online community can have fake people or information is can still in its own way have bonds between members that can be very strong and meaningful. Just as in real life is someone lies or becomes untrustworthy the group can shun them and it can take a long time to regain that trust. Some communities people might be familiar with can be anything from the church you go to, to boy scouts or brownies, even to AA class. Having similar interests can give people a sense of pride and helps them to feel needed, loved and connected.

Something that I do receive on a regular basis are e-mails due to the communications departments' listserve, or electronic mailing list. Just about every day, or even sometimes two or three times a day I get an e-mail from Janeen Wilder, to help me keep up on the most important things we need to know about whats going on in our department, including the most recent one on force forms. Even though I sometimes receive an e-mail that doesn't pertain to me specifically I still receive it because I am on the communications departments' listserve. Wikipedia defines listserve as a type of Internet forum, as a special usage of e-mail that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users.

No matter what your definition of community is or what part of your life you relate it to you there are still ties that can connect us all together, be it blood lines or a DSL line. For me personally I'm not much of an online junkie, id rather sit around with friends of family in person instead of doing it through a computer screen, but for other people they may feel more comfortably that way. Either way you do it the connections we have with others are strong and important to us, a sense of community is a good thing, real or virtual.