In the Lecture in Week 6, online and virtual communities were discussed. I really enjoyed the fact that communities, in both an online and offline world attract people for similar reasons. That is, for a feeling of membership, for the feeling that you are influencing people, that you are interacting with people who share emotional connections, similar interests, values and have similar goals you want to achieve. In the lecture Rachel Cobcroft talked about why people join online communities. She spoke about feelings of affiliation, belonging or the purpose of information sharing and goal achievement. It is interesting to note that this is no different to why people have offline communities. When i was 7 i joined the brownies, or as they are known now, The Girl Guides. I joined because i wanted to say to people, "I am a brownie". I was proud (as most 7 year old are) that i got to wear this uniform and go to meetings every week and learn new skills and display my own (information sharing), and to apply those skills to gain a badge or to sell the most biscuits to raise money for new equipment (goal achievement). How does this differ to online communities?
The only reason i ask this question is because for a long time, and it still exists albeit to a much smaller extent, there has been a major prejudice towards online communities. Think about how the people who play multiple player online games are stereotyped. Why is their community thought as to be less important than say, my grandmothers crocheting club? They are people with a common interest, coming together to share information, whether it be how to defeat the newest villian (please excuse my lack of knowledge on these games) or simply the newest hook stitch.
Is it simply because they are 'online' communities or is it something else. In my eye it is to do with the internet, that being, the way they are connected rather than why they are connected. I attempted to find some other articles about what I'm talking about but I haven't found anything (perhaps I haven't looked hard enough). In terms of the difference between online and offline communities I personally don't see the difference other than in the forum, platform, in which people choose to form a community. And as Eben Mogren said "Everybody is connected to everybody else, all data than can be shared will be share. Get used to it".
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As a former brownie I joined because all my friends were members and I didn’t want to be left out. Suffice to say within 4 weeks I quit, apparently I just wasn’t ‘brownie material’, so it’s nice to find another similar story!
In relation to what you are saying about the stereotypes surrounding online players, I think you need to look at the idea of virtual communities in a broader sense if you want more research material. Virtual communities don’t just include games, they also include clubs like your grandmothers crochet club, and I don’t think they are as isolated or misrepresented as I believe you have the impression. I’ve been studying gaming culture now for three years (so I have an unfair advantage!) and I believe the problem lies not in the format or the forum (the internet), but more in how outsiders believe members interact. I think it’s very interesting how socially and emotionally affected some individuals become due to their online social hemisphere. I recently saw and episode of Law and Order where individuals were getting confused between reality and the online world of a simulated game similar to Second Life. What struck me about it was the resonating opinion of players that if their avatar (online personality) became socially isolated or hurt, the player themselves would feel hurt and isolated from their community. While this example may be an extreme dramatization for a television show, the facts echo that there is a lot of emotional connection between the online and offline worlds. This is what Slater was talking about in the Flew article when he referred to the cross-contamination of reality and online communities (2004, 66).
Another example is society believing antisocial and violent behaviour is caused by videogames. However many case studies have demonstrated that this may not be the case. Either way society’s problem does not lie with the technology, it’s more that the content is perhaps less socially acceptable to some.
Flew, T. 2004. New Media: An introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Check out these books and articles if you want more on gaming culture:
Anderson, C. A. and B. J. Bushman. 2001. Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Psychological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature. American Psycological Society, 12 (5): 353-359 (accessed April 22, 2008, from ProQuest: Academic Research Library).
Huesmann, L. R. and L. D. Taylor. 2006. The Role of Media Violence in Violent Behavior. Annual Review Public Health, 27: 393-415.
Lachlan, K. A., S. L. Smith and R. Tamborini. 2005. Models for Aggressive Behavior: The Attributes of Violent Video Characters in Popular Video Games. Communication Studies, 56 (8): 313-329 (accessed April 22, 2008, from ProQuest: Academic Research Library).
Marshall, P. 2004. Playing Game Cultures: Electronic Games. New Media Culture. 61-74. London: Hodder.
Hi, thankyou for your comment on my blog. I have to agree my statement about Second Life probably could be counted as the understatement of the year. I just thought I would return the favour...
In the world that we live in today people are just going to have to get used to the fact that almost everything is online. It is ridiculous for people to think that offline communities are any more important than online ones. I too found it incredibly inspiring that people from all walk of life and from all over the world are now able to share their thoughts, passions and interests through the use of social networking. It is an amazing achievement for humanity and a rather useful one at that!
Even now I feel that same sense of wanting to belong, the same way when you felt when you were seven. I think it is just human nature to want to belong to something bigger than ourselves. We constantly strive to find our place and in my opinion, online communities (along with offline) enable us to feel that sense of belonging.
I think also when you spoke about the feeling of influencing others and creating change, this was a valid point. I do not think a lot of people understand the power they hold when communicating their thoughts and feelings around the world. Even writings such as this blog, we cannot control who reads these, therefore exposing our inner most thoughts to strangers half way across the world. This is why I found it so hard at first to blog. I was petrified of people reading my blogs and riting them off as ‘stupid’ or ‘boring’. Nowadays, I guess that is the world we live in, and we better get used to it.
I'd have to disagree with Stef. In any offline community or club there is still going to be a joker among the group, or somebody who thinks they know more than they really do.
Seeing as we are all university students, I guess the obvious example is a class or tutorial. I'm sure that we are all familiar with the chatty student who tries to battle the tutor with their more experienced state of mind. Then put that student in a group of 4 or 5 to complete an assignment and he/she is going to run riot with ideas and won't give the other students space for their own ideas.
I know I have certainly been fooled to think a person was more knowledgeable in a particular field all because of that persons demeanor - but as I listened more and more to that person, I started noticing mistakes and glitches in the information presented - so I reassessed my trust towards them. And this is some one I had known for years!
It is the same in online communities. You should always approach information with caution anyway.
In this discussion I believe that we're all forgetting that online communities have their benefits as well. Quite often when you join online communities with produsage a database or a new way for presenting information is created. Tagging on delicious for example helps to organise the information we are looking for - presenting infomation that we may not have found otherwise.
How you assess that information is up to you.
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