Last Homework

First, another stab at defining community, our third attempt. As with the previous attempts, try not to refer back to earlier definitions. Just you and the screen, informed by our class experience.

Community is still a group of self-interested, rational decision making individuals connected in a way, even if the way is only through the online medium. The community has to grow strong, though, or it will perish. The connections between the community’s members have to mean something for the community to truly thrive.

Second question: Is community possible online, purely online? Yes or no, and why or why not? So we’re not talking here about FaceBook, which we agreed is a Web site that primarily facilitates offline community. It is not meant to create or enable community only online.

Yes, I would argue that. It’s not easy, though. No matter what kind of community is being created online, the people there are always going to be real people with real lives apart from the community. So far, the most successful models have built on the foundation of a preexisting community. However, there’s nothing that I’ve found in research to tell me that the model cannot change. Is facebook just simply a transition tool for a future of communities that are totally online? Time, along with users’ personal tolerances, will tell.

Third question: Is social networking online — Web 2.0 — part of the problem, or is it part of the solution? Include in your answer what the problem is, and what might be its solution. If you’re having trouble with this one, think of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone.

Solution. Hands down. Maintaining real-life friendships is less costly because of the decreased amount of time required for them since the advent of social networking. This allows people time to either delve into making more friends, doing more things online, or actually going outside. With every technological change comes an initial resistance. Then, when the dust settles, people realize how much they enjoy the new systems in their aresenals. There was a time when polite society frowned upon cameras, TVs, phones, and computers. Now they all come in one device. Imagine that.