Online Communities

Communities are a very import part of everyday life. Through out a persons life, a person will belong to many different communities like that of a neighborhood, work community, smaller groups like sports community or clubs, and online communities like ebay, facebook, , a blogging community, plus many more communities. Without communities we would be lost. The purpose of communities is to have a sense of belonging and reliability on others. Without the formation of communities a person would be alone in the world. Without communication with others our society would be totally different, it would be each person for themselves. This is why communities are one of the most important aspects of our society. Communities are what make the world as we know it today.

One community that has become more popular over the last few years is online communities. According to Wikipedia, an online community is " a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the internet .” According to this definition, one online community that I belong to is facebook.

Facebook was originally created for college students, but has expanded to include everyone who has an email address associating them with a network (facebook, wikipedia). Facebook is free to all its users and allows people to create a profile in which you can state your interests, activities, town, relationship states, education information and anything else that you want to disclose. Facebook also allows its users to have a profile picture and upload pictures. This allows for other facebook members to connect a face with the information given. This also allows for stronger social bonds to be formed. The best thing about facebook is that you can set your page to privacy, which allows only those who are your friends to see your profile, allowing you to have somewhat of privacy with who sees your page. This in a way is creating your own community of those who can see your page. The pictures that you are allowed to put up on your page also create a social tie because you are sharing your life with others. This creates a tie because the people looking at the page will get to know you in some sense through the pictures you put up. Another way that facebook creates a social ties is when you add people to be your friend. This allows for you to add more people to your friends list thus increasing your community each time. Adding friends also allows you to meet new people and to talk to them bonding together your social worlds. Another way that facebook helps create a social tie is the feature where you are able to write on each others wall. Writing on a wall is leaving a comment for the person the wall belongs too. This creates a social tie because a person is able to communicate with everyone else who they are friends with on face book, creating a community of other face book users. Communication is one of the key factors in community, without it there would be no community. Facebook is a perfect example of an online community that has increased the community ties in society without making us disconnected from the world and its communities.

Community is one of the most important concepts in our society. Without it we would be lost. Communities are what connects us to the rest of the world. If there was no community then everyone would only look out for themselves and have no social ties to anyone, creating a totally different world then we are use to today.

References:

Facebook. (2007, March 20). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:25, March 20, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Facebook&oldid=116552685

Virtual community. (2007, March 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:24, March 20, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_community&oldid=115921446