Virtual Communities

Given what you know about community, is it possible to form a virtual community? Do you feel that you know your classmates in this online class the same as if you were in a classroom with them? Below is my response to the question:


“We know the rules of community; we know the healing effect of community in terms of individual lives. If we could somehow find a way across the bridge of our knowledge, would not these same rules have a healing effect upon our world? We human beings have often been referred to as social animals. But we are not yet community creatures. We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom, equality, and love of genuine community. It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail parties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries. It is our task--our essential, central, crucial task--to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceed.”

M. Scott Peck
The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace

Is it possible to form a virtual community? To be so “connected” with a group of people that actual emotion exists even though there is no FtF relationship? What causes this to happen? Are we more attached to our virtual relationships than we are our physical relationships? Why is this so?

I was intrigued by Rheingold’s experience of WELL. He went to IRL parties virtually knowing everyone, but yet not knowing a single person in the room. A whole room of people who knew more about each other than perhaps any other person, yet there was not physical connection, until that moment. Rheingold felt, by his definition, that he had enough contact with these people as to form a virtual community.

Give what I know about community, I would argue that it is possible to form a virtual community. I have been in chat rooms where people who are thousands of miles away from each other know so much about each other it’s a little scary.

Do I believe this is the healthiest way to form a community? Not really. I often wonder why we are more inclined to be a part of a virtual community, and yet we don’t even know our neighbors. What does Nancy in Maine have that Joe next door, or Jane across the street don’t have? Thurlow, et al suggests that people find it exciting and rewarding to chat with people we otherwise may not have met. All of this is, of course, in proportion to the time we are willing to commit to getting in to the community. Just like it is in real life.

In a sense, I am part of a virtual community on Facebook. I chat with people in my life now, people I haven’t chatted with since high school, and I “meet” new friends through old ones. I can also connect with people who have similar interests (like photography) and who share or oppose my opinions. When my computer is on, I am logged in. It’s like a virtual presence.

As I write this I am having a conversation with someone I know in Chile, an old high school friend, someone who is in my IRL community, and someone else I met through another friend. We’re having a real party! :D It’s just that none of them know that there are other “guests.”

Tonight I was having a conversation with an acquaintance about my online classes. She was asking how they were going, how I liked them. I shared with her that the convenience was wonderful, and that I knew things about classmates I otherwise wouldn’t have known (because of our intros).

My challenge, however, is that there is no FtF time. I like being able to experience body language, voice inflection, and instant feedback on a topic of conversation. In a sense, I miss the Social Cues Thurlow, et al talk about. So, while I know about my classmates, I don’t actually “know” them. On the other hand, I am not sure they “know” me either. My writing is another world from who I am in person. It is always pre-meditated in a way and seems to convey what is going on in my head much better than the words that come out of my mouth.

Perhaps my challenge then is to find the balance Bill McKibben was talking about in 5:00 A.M. He wrote, “The question is not “Did the Indians have it right?” The question is not “Did the Amish have it right?” The question is “Can we, blessed with technology but also with nature, get it right?”