User talk:Rheglasgow/sandbox

Community Article

'Internet Communities' section draft

Rheglasgow (talk) 13:42, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Groups of people are complex, in ways that make those groups hard to form and hard to sustain; much of the shape of traditional institutions is a response to those difficulties. New social tools relieve some of those burdens, allowing for new kinds of group-forming, like using simple sharing to anchor the creation of new groups. The internet and specifically social media are such tools.

One simple form of cooperation, almost universal with social tools, is conversation; when people are in one another's company, even virtually, they like to talk. Conversation creates more of a sense of community than sharing does. Online communities offer instant communication/conversation, emulating face-to-face conversation more so than e.g. email.

Collaborative production is a more involved form of cooperation, as it increases the tension between individual and group goals. The litmus test for collaborative production is simple: no one person can take credit for what gets created, and the project could not come into being without the participation of many. A prime example here is of course Wikipedia!

An online community builds weaker bonds and allows users to be anonymous. Clay Shirky, a researcher on digital media, states in reference to the audience of an online community, "An audience isn’t just a big community; it can be more anonymous, with many fewer ties among users. A community isn’t just a small audience either; it has a social density that audiences lack." The sites that offer online communities, like Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest allow users to "stalk" their community and act anonymously.[17] 'Conversely, online communities allow for the creation and maintaining of bonds (transnationally) that would otherwise be impossible thus can be considered strong. Social movements benefit greatly here such as Occupy, gaining support and participation globally, as well as the ability to organise large numbers of people. Another major benefit is the cost-free aspect of using the internet in this way.'

We cannot ignore however the undemocratic nature which follows physical society into the online world; the unequal access to the internet and the content of the internet. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rheglasgow (talk • contribs) 11:15, 4 November 2015 (UTC)