Community
Virtual communities are a new phenomena
When I write this I write it to my imagined community
out there. I'm not, as some posts might suggest,
anonymous. I know that my posts will have
repercussions. In some ways I'm actually more careful about what I put out
on the net than I am in ordinary face-to-face
conversations, because I know that anyone can be listening, and I know
that it can have repercussions for(ever) a long time.
One component is not only shared interests, but a similar
approach to experiencing those interest. Another is likely a shared base
of general information. A third is probably related to those bugaboo issues
of education and occupation. And a forth is
no doubt related to members being willing to adopt mythic
roles, such as wise-woman, shaman, warrior chief,
princess, peace maker, etc. If these characters are not present, no community
will achieve stability, neither virtual or 'real'. And there is at least
one more componet that may be most critical of all; a courtly respect for
the other members of the community, that no one violates.
It's been pleasant to see everyone checking in over
the last few days. The kind of casual chat that has occurred is pleasant
to me but not something I have experienced much in other lists. I am afraid
I might be bad at it.
Like you, Eileen, I have been ousted from a list. Mine
was less dramatic. It was a list of psychologists
and MSWs who decided they didn't want anyone on the list without those degrees.
I had only posted twice on the list and both posts were well received so
the expulsion was not really aimed at me personally,
but it stung anyway.
I think my emotional reactions to
events on this list have been of the same type as those recently described
by everyone else, though I suspect others may be feeling those feelings more
deeply. I am still enamoured of the subject, rather than the
group itself. Time takes time.
This is one of those gems that makes me such a happy
lurker ... Now I realise why I reckon myself a
(silent) member of The Community.
I wonder whether a single list, or group of any sort, can survive
without some basic community of belief. I can respect and learn from Mormons,
but I cannot be one, and am always therefore separate from their community.
When Stephen uses the phrase "minds in a meatsuit," or others speak of
subjectivity and objectivity, thereby dividing the mental and physical into
two different realms, I realize that we are so far apart in our underlying
view of basic experience that the most we can realistically expect is a courteous
tolerance of each other. We can cooperate and communicate, but probably not
commune.I am eager to see how this problem plays itself out in this
list.
Online communities are what we make them.
you cannot force a "community".
But community is good, paranoia is bad. Surely you can
have one without the other?
Is it really possible to have community without geographical
boundaries and what will that do to the communities we are actually living
in?
of what practical use is a cybercommunity
Every F2F community to which I belong,
whether it be at work or around the neighborhood, is constantly engaging
other groups with other interests as part of the socio-economic activity
that makes a city a city. Listserv groups not only cannot engage in activities
with F2F groups but do not even interact much with other cyber groups.
Nevertheless, my loyalty to some of these electronic groups is as strong
or stronger than my loyalty to certain F2F groups that can actually make
a difference somewhere. Why?
One function of a cybercommunity is as a place for marginalised
notions, groups, individuals.
Our neighborhood, love it leave it <g> My own view is
we've built a aethetically sin-ugly neighborhood*
but allowed for a free flow of architecture and each with a house of their
own. The American dream? ;-)
A free flow of information does favor democratic ideals. However,
the net also permits people to congregate in small, effectively closed,
interest-specific groups. Access to these groups can be made contingent on
education, vocation or even social position. Totalitarian regimes may be
absent, but miniature oligarchies are legion. Thus, the Nazi transvestite
astrologer has a support group no matter where he or she lives. Whether the
net will serve as a mechanism to truly test ideas in a democratic forum or
end up being a way for the social and political
groups created in real life to keep track of their own members remains to
be seen.
Cultivating the desire to be a sociological group - what we're
really talking about here is culture, no? Cultivation - to the promote the
development of growth (of ideas customs, skills, arts, information . . .
).Culture - the ideas, customs, skills arts, information of a people or group,
that are transferred, communicated or passed along.
I would dare to suggest that anyone who does not give a close
hearing (reading) to everyone in a group is willfully witholding participation.
And to blame this personal "choice" on the other person or the group is to
project something of their (your) own on the
other.
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