1. Using the virtual and RL communities you are a part of for
evidence, describe how you agree and/or disagree with Bell and
Bauman’s notions of virtual communities as peg communities (250-
300 words).
People may react and behave differently in different environments, but it is true that their current mindsets will remain fairly consistent. People are people, across the board, and no matter what the environment they will bring across who they are and the mindsets they currently adhere to. As far as communities along the virtual and real world, I would argue that they adhere to pretty much the same standards. In all of these environments, we hang up a part of ourselves as a part of our identity, which exemplifies Bell's idea that online communities act as peg communities (pg. 254)
Communities act on several different levels. It's a broad term, used to group people together based upon interest, location, beliefs, etc. We can start off at the top of the hierarchy chart of communities, say for example, the Tri-Cities. Because I live here, and my neighbors live here, we are part of the Tri-City community. From there, we can define smaller communities such as the separate cities, or perhaps places in which we work. An optional community that I choose to take part in would be my church. It is evident that there are communities that I inherently belong in whether I like it or not and those of which I actively choose so on my own.
Virtual communities give off this same sort of rapport as well, grouping people into communities that are inherent and/or selective based upon the user's actions. An easy example would be to use Facebook--because we all know everyone who /matters/ has a Facebook. We all belong to the FB community and do just fine. We can sub categorize based upon what schools we decide to list ourselves as having attended, where we live, etc. If I so decided, I could join a FB group based upon interest and/or likes.
For Assignment #2, I'd like to use Facebook and deviantART to compare and contrast different types of communities. Facebook is like the umbrella community while deviantART is a selective, interest based site.
Bell, David. The Cybercultures Reader. 2nd. 1. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000. 254-63.
Nice work on how you observe how communities are variously defined. But I gotta ask--isn't there a fundamental difference between communities of choice and communities of chance? You know like your geographic community seems different from your online community. Whatcha think?
ReplyDeleteTrue, but I can choose to live in the Tri-Cities, or I can choose to live in Cheney, just how I can choose to frequent Facebook or MySpace. Although admittedly, changing locations takes way more effort and commitment than changing website communities.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference I can think about when it comes to chance/choice, would be that by choice, it's something that we actively partake in and want to follow. Chance sort of leaves it up in the air.. sort of describes it as physical factors which we cannot change, like skin color, or where someone was born. But even then, we know it's possible to change skin color, and someone can choose to disown their heritage/ thereby making it a choice?
The chance/choice thing really got me into a deep thinking tiff. I came to the conclusion that by thinking about something, about a community.. whatever. By taking that and observing it, we make it a choice based upon if we accept it or reject it. I believe the problem is that the word "chance" is really so subjective. How would you define chance communities? Would it be like, going to WSU and just so happening to be a part of the Cougar community? Because I could always choose to ignore that and not take part, thereby mentally kicking me out of that community. It's all about perspective too, I suppose. Because in my mind, I could NOT belong to a community, while an outside source may tend to put me into one.
I liked this post but there are a couple of things that I'd like to comment on. First of all I disagree with the idea that people don't change their mindset on different circumstances. I definitely think they do. There have been many studies about mob mentality and how people can do outrageous things because they find themselves in a situation where they feel they are anonymous. If you take it to the next level, how many predators cruise communities looking for innocent victims, but out side of VR they are quiet and shy.
ReplyDeleteSecond, how you define community seems overly broad. Isn't a group of people with similar characteristics such as place of residence or skin color really just a stereotype? I think there is more to community. As you hinted at in your comment isn't there a requirement to want to be part of that community.