Final: The Online Community and the Individual

Desiree Figueroa MCS 244 Spring 2019 Final Paper

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, in order to achieve self-actualization our basic physiological and safety needs must be met. The next most vital human needs to be met are for love and belonging. (Mcleod, 2018) We live in a world full of complex interactions. The level of connectivity currently exhibiting itself our society is unprecedented. Certainly, people forty years ago could not have envisioned a world full of super-fast smartphones, virtual reality technology, video calling, and artificial intelligence software. All of this communication technology is designed to serve the purpose of bringing people together, of making our communication easier. These technologies break down the barriers imposed by distance and through them, we are virtually brought closer together.

One of the most impactful ways that technology has made us better connected is through the use of online communities. An online community is broadly defined as a group of like minded people who engage on the internet by way of forums, instant messaging, chat rooms (group chats.) The term was coined by internet forerunner, Howard Rheingold in 1994. (Maloney, Preece)

Now our needs for love and belonging do not have to be satisfied simply by our physical community, but a whole virtual community who often share more in common with us than those around us. We are now given the opportunity to connect with people at rapid speeds. We do not have to rely on our ability to occupy spaces with people in order to convene.

Online communities have gone through a series of evolutions since they first began. The general population has no idea how far these online communities have come and the history of their incremental development. It is very tough to believe that the online chat rooms date back to the 1980s. These chats were the first real instances of online communities. In 1989 AOL launched its own chatrooms. ( Lake, M.)

Being a kid in the early 2000s, most of us were very familiar with AOL as a medium for messaging and connecting with friends. From the perspective of someone growing up in the Bronx, I know I for one especially enjoyed having the ability to simply chat with all my friends at once for three main reasons: in the winter months when it was far too cold to go outside and interact, at times when I could not go out alone because it was too late, or when there was simply no place for kids to be out together safely. Because of early online communities like AOL chat rooms or AOL instant messenger (AIM.) I and many young children like me were provided with a “space” for communication with a group of friends that was safer than the physical spaces that we had available to us.

This has been an invaluable effect of online communities on individuals. I find, however, that this effect is often overlooked and detracted from. There are many people who are of the opinion that the use of online communities somehow lessens the strength of physical communities and promotes poor social skills. They do raise a strong point. Anyone can go into a public space and observe a crowd of people mostly looking at their phones while they are actually with their friends. What the detractors do not take into account is that although young people are outside and connecting with people in the virtual world those connections transcend into their physical communities.

Through the use of online communities’ people become inspired to create, to push for changes that they think need to be made, they share resources and information. A prime example of an online community for personal development is discussion board or class blogs. Here students are able to gain an insight on what their fellow classmates feel about the work they are studying and exchange ideas. Some students who are not as inclined to be vocal in class have a chance to voice their opinions and do so in a way that may suit them better. So not only are online communities fostering closer friendships between people, but it is now also a method to streamline the learning processes.

As people learn more and have access to a myriad of information through the sharing that online communities promote, they then become more motivated to question the society which they live. We have seen this specifically with the Black Lives Matter Movement, which began as a reaction to the acquittal of George Zimmerman who shot unarmed black young man, Trayvon Martin.  The black lives matter movement had gained a lot of its initial traction based on people expressing their outrage for Zimmerman’s acquittal as well as police brutality through online forums and social media. There is now a website dedicated solely to the cause. In the about section of the site, it is stated that “The Black Lives Matter Global Network is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.”

The movement is a cause that bears so much importance to the future of the American justice system and has been able to gain a great deal attention due to a heavy online presence. People no longer need to travel to organize or get coverage for their cause. They can do it right from their homes. You can simply post a tweet with the hashtag for your cause and you may reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. In fact, according to ‘a Pew Research Center analysis of public tweets, the hashtag [#blacklivesmatter] has been used nearly 30 million times on Twitter – an average of 17,002 times per day – as of May 1, 2018.’ (Anderson, M., Toor, S., Rainie, L., Smith, A., Anderson, M., Toor, S., . . . Smith, A. )  The hashtag increases in use in response to news stories of issues that deal with racism. This is another example of how the online community transcends the virtual world. People are using the online community, specifically, Twitter to engage with others on an issue that they care about and are seeking justice for.

You can even consider a social media site like  Instagram to be a type of online community. The people you chose to follow and the people who follow you will have somewhat of an influence in the way you choose to live your life. The ability to take quick photos constantly and share them on your phone is saturating the population with media. Yet at the same time, it encourages innovators to come up with ways of engaging people outside of the realm of the online community. Some of these innovations include: “Descriptive Camera,”  created by Matt Richardson in 2012, which once the shutter has been pressed a description of the picture is sent to a thermal printer. (Brucker-Cohen, J.) This encourages a new type of interaction with photography and among individuals who do not even know each other.

Social media sites and online communities will help foster physical communities by creating a stronger demand for authenticity, creativity, and innovation. Although it seems counterintuitive, they also motivate people to want to go out into the world. I predict that the future of the online community will continue on the path that it is headed, which is bringing people closer together. Instead of hindering people from real world communication and connection, it will force people to go out and explore the world, even if only to compete.  Curiosity is in human nature, now we have the technology to satisfy our curiosity in ways that were unimaginable years before.  The technology is here, but the challenge is maintaining control over the technology. If an online community becomes a necessity and not a tool for obtaining the desired outcome then perhaps it is not positive. It is up to the individual to make the choice of how they will communicate, for what purposes they will communicate, and when they will communicate.

 

Citations:

About. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/
Anderson, M., Toor, S., Rainie, L., Smith, A., Anderson, M., Toor, S., . . . Smith, A. (2018, July 11). Activism in the Social Media Age. Retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/11/activism-in-the-social-media-age/
Brucker-Cohen, J. (2012, May 15). Picture This-Reinventing The Camera As A Social And Anti-Technological Object. Retrieved from https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/4x4zzg/picture-this—reinventing-the-camera-as-a-social-and-anti-technological-object
Lake, M. (2009, July 15). Timeline: The evolution of online communities. Retrieved from https://www.computerworld.com/article/2526581/timeline–the-evolution-of-online-communities.html
Maloney-Krichmar,D; Preece,J. //pensivepuffin.com/dwmcphd/syllabi/insc547_wi13/papers/qna/maloney-krichmar-healthcommunity-TOCHI.pdf

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