In concluding his essay "Webs as Pegs", David Bell states that he is inclined to believe that attempts to define community should not be limited to what others say it is (pg 261). That is, everyone has their own definition and experience of what community means to them, virtual or not, and attempts to segregate, integrate, or castigate these meanings are essentially a waste of time.
I, for one, wholeheartedly agree with Bell's conclusion. Everyone has their own definition of community and what works for one person, simply doesn't work for another. Their are too many variables involved, such as cultural identity and literacy, (digital or otherwise) to lay claim to any single definition.
To illustrate this point, I'd like to use my loving wife, Brenda, as an example. Having been married for a few years, and sharing the same socio-economic background, one would think that we'd have similar views on this subject. After all, living in the same household and having unfettered access to the same technologies, wouldn't it stand to reason? The truth is, we couldn't have different definitions of community if we had come from different planets.
Brenda feels that community, or at least her understanding of community, has everything to do with emotion and physicality. That is, the physical emotion of human beings engaged in social interaction, in the flesh. Tools of communication such as phones, email, and facebook are a means to the ends of communication. They enable her to engage with her community, but they are not part of her community. No one she doesn't know in meet space would ever be welcomed into her definition of community. I'm just saying...
Myself, on the other hand, have a vastly different definition of community. For me, virtual and meet space are one in the same. I see technology as a tool to augment my ability to communicate in my communities. Foursquare? New community? Nope. It's a new tool to interact with people in a different manner. Put another way, my definition of community is essentially any relationships I have. I may engage in them using different tools and technology, or none at all. I have friends that I see in person and those that I have never met in the flesh. They are all part of my community.
If the definition and understanding is so different in one household, where all things are essentially equal (literacy, social standing, economics etc.), it stands to reason that this is just the tip of iceberg. Do women view community differently that men? Do hunter-gathers in Africa feel the same way about community as I do? What about Eskimos living in igloos? How about the person sitting next to you in class?
I think that community has always been a matter of perspective. You make of it what you will, and technology, for better or worse, will either change that perspective or it won't. Bell has the right idea when he says "Stop worring! Get over it!."
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That is the beauty of diversity and the inalienable right of personal choice…Freedom. The sense of community and what it means really has no one association. I like Bell’s ideas and the understanding is what makes it so captivating…
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the ideas of Bell, and i agree he makes some very good points. A great point he made i believe was about the line which may be diminishing between worlds of virtual and real. This is a good point, and I can see it in the world around me, This is a good point and it seems that for the most part, it is helping society keep connected, although there are some ways which it may be "disconnecting" us from the world around us. Good points in your post.
ReplyDeleteExcellent points and your own personal example! My wife and I completely relate. I have my own sense of community which is very close to yours. I have many friends in the RL world and I have many that I have never met in the physical realm. Both sets of friends are members of my "whole" community in my life. In a certain sense, they are separate communities to maybe most people, but I consider all my friends as a whole, whether I have met them or not. I keep in touch, and so do they. That's part of what makes them all friends. I even consider all of my family that I am in the least in touch with, part of my community. My community, in summary, is any of those that are family or friends that I see or hear from on a regular or semi-regular basis. This is with or without technology as you said. My wife is like your wife to a certain degree. She doesn't want her own Facebook or MySpace (and trust me, I have offered at least a few times to develop ones for her). Her reason isn't that she only wants friends in the RL world, but she just doesn't think she would have time to keep in touch with them. She also knows about the "scammers" out there that just want to send spam and other crap to her Facebook. Kimberly (my wife) knows about most of my friends that I have met on the web over the years that I have never met physically. She thinks it is a little wacky that I try sometimes to keep in touch with them. But, she knows I consider them friends like the ones I am in touch with here in Tri-Cities. She has admitted she didn't think she would talk much to someone she met online, or even befriend them. Kimberly, like your wife, is more into the physicality of friendships. She likes the "there-ness" of her friends. We go visit a couple of her friends and her mom every so often, but she never hardly calls them. It took me forever and a day just to make her want a cellphone. So, as you can tell, I am all for staying in touch with friends and family in both RL and virtual communities, no matter what tools are used if any, while Kimberly likes to actually be there physically with our friends and family and doesn't care too much for the virtuality of the online communities.
ReplyDeleteBell is completely correct about variations in the meaning of community. I have my meaning of community, and my wife has her own meaning. You and Brenda have differing opinions. I suppose you and I may agree with each other, and maybe a college student in China agrees with us too lol. Community is what each of us make it out to be; what works for us and how we perceive things and people.
I think everyone can agree on one thing about communities: Each community involves at least one or more living beings. Have we heard of a community of monkeys? =)
good post & comments, everyone.
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