By Lim Sok Fern (47395)
The
advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has transformed
the form of community in the society. Today, people are free to generate
different form of community without social identity restraints and geographical
constraints (Chang, 2011). The emergency of the Internet has become a digital
platform for people to create, initiate, develop and sustain their personal
relationships. Coined by Rheingold, the term of “virtual community” is
recognized as “social aggregations of people that bringing public discussion
with enough human feelings and form online personal relationships in the
cybrspace (Chan, Bhandar, Oh, & Chan, 2004).
People
in the virtual community are based on similar goals, interests or values
instead of a shared location. In the virtual community, members are allowed to
interact without constraint of time and location. In addition, the virtual
community members don’t reveal their real identity and obligate to contribute
in the online world (Chang, 2014).
How
virtual communities achieve success in the 21st century? Scholars
pointed that anonymity, trust and a sense of community drive a virtual
community to flourish (Chan et al., 2004). In the cyberspace, online users rely
on each other based on perceived trust and strong sense of self. For instance,
the openness followed by anonymity on the Internet causes people to reveal more
about their personal information to others. When their opinions and ideas have
been accepted by the other online members, they feel that they have strong
attachment with their online friends thus form a sense of belongingness.
However,
Chang (2011) stated that the virtual community is unable to sustain for a long period
of time due to lacking of strong ties. It seems difficult for people to
transform their online relationships to traditional relationships because of
absence of individual commitment. Petroczi, Nepusz and Bazso (2007) stated that
people desire to face-to-face meeting and it recognized as the basis to build
commitments in order to generate a strong sense of belonging.
Moreover,
the text based communication increase the chance for misunderstandings when
emotions on the Internet did not represent the exact pictures. It takes time
for people to understand the intended message and provide feedback. So, people
see that the virtual community doesn’t make human life easier.
Hence,
does the existence of the virtual community bring us benefits or damages? As
mentioned in the beginning, it brings people closer within each other. At the
same time, it provides platforms for crime cases such as cyber bully and scam. As
we all are part of the virtual community, what is your opinion toward this
issue and how do you differentiate yourself between the virtual community and
the real world community?
References
Chan, C.M. L., Bhandar, M., Oh, L. B., & Chan,
H. C. (2004). Recognition and participation in a virtual community. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences, 4, 1-10.
Chang, M. C. S. (2011). Social relationship development in virtual community: A life cycle
approach. Retrieved from http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2011/PACIS2011-026.pdf
Petroczi, A.,
Nepusz, T., & Bazso, F. (2007). Measuring tie-strength in virtual
social networks.CONNECTIONS, 27(2),
39-52.
Hi Sok Fern and thanks for presenting an interesting view on virtual communities.
ReplyDeleteI feel that virtual communities have the potential to be something much more, just as real life relationships. This is because it can be a great force to transform something whether in a small scale or big scale. Take for instance, the virtual community that was behind the Arab Spring or several revolutions all over the world. That is the strength of virtual communities where it can cut across the boundaries of time and space.
I agree that virtual communities too can be fragile because it does not require real life commitment unless one really devotes to it. You are free to enter or exit anytime you want. It all comes down to how one draws the line between the virtual communities and the real life communities that they want to part of.
Dear Joyce, thank you for your comment and reply. As you discussed above, the virtual community comes along with many advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, it is useful for people to connect and interact with each other despite the distances and time. However, it is difficult to imagine that the people surround us such as our family and our friends are preferred to message or call us virtually nor to face-to-face communicate. Hence, we really have to draw a clear line between the virtual and real community as you mentioned especially in this information age.
DeleteFace to face is nice, girls. We can see their eye and we can know whether they are lying or not. Hahahaha
DeleteThanks Sok Fern. I could see the good of virtual community. Although a multitude of special interests groups exist in the physical community, there is not always a forum located nearby to discuss the particular topic in which each person is interested. Virtual communities provide a forum for those discussions. The participant never has to leave home and has some control over how the discussion progresses. Additionally, if there is not a forum for a certain discussion, almost anyone can set up a virtual community of their own, although the difficulty varies depending on the network.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, people in rural communities, virtual communities can provide a lifeline. Some communities are so isolated, or small, that few special interest groups exist. For these people, virtual communities can allow participants to enjoy their hobby or interest, even though the nearest participant is hundreds of miles away.
Dear Patrick, thank you for you reply and feedback. Undeniably, the online community brings benefits for our society. It provides plenty of opportunities for people to share and exchange their views and opinions. It brings people together and allows people who share the similar hobbies and interests to interact with each others. It is eliminated the vast geographical distances between people. This kind of improvements are reflected the new technologies development in the 21st century.
DeleteThank you Sok Fern, I believe viral community did play a good role to broaden our horizon as we can share and learn much more than before can.
ReplyDeleteBut viral community also provide a larger crime scene space for people. Leaking personal information, hacking bank account, and even fraud online. There is nothing completely good for us, and we should always learn to protect and utilize this double surface blade properly and carefully.
Dear Winnie, thank you for your feedback and opinion. Yes, the online world is not only benefits us, it also brings numerous harms for people. There are too much news reports about online scams and crimes. Hence, as pointed by you, we really have to be careful while engaging with the virtual community.
DeleteThank you Sok Fern for your opinion. I think that virtual community has both advantages and disadvantages. However, I think that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages because virtual community is not real at all. Although it provides the platform for us to express ourselves, however it is still not our real community. At first, we might still know how to deviate our time in managing both communities When the time passes, we might tend to favor the online community because we are addicted to it and because people can give us the support that we wanted. Until a certain extent, we might think that virtual community is more important and feel less valued in the real community.
ReplyDeleteDear Esther, thank you for your sharing and reply. As you said, everything has two sides, same goes to the online community. However, I agreed that people tend to ignore their real social life when they are addicted to the virtual world. Hence, users must be aware and have a clear division between the real and online world in order to curb the overloaded Internet consumption and addiction.
DeleteThanks you Sok Fern. Personally think that virtual community is one of a platform that can interact with people that have the same interests throughout the world. For me, i do belongs in a small virtual community where i communicate with them and sometimes share some information related to our interests. Although we do not know each other but we can communicate well because of our same interests.
ReplyDeleteHowever, i do agree that virtual community have its disadvantages because we will easily be trapped in the risk such as hack and more.
Thus, we need to identify what information can be posted and what information cannot. In my case, i will share my emotions and also opinion with them but i definitely not enclose my private information such as my real name, my address and so on.
It will be a balance between real and virtual community if we know where is the limit.
Dear Jia Chi, thank you for sharing your experience and ideas. Through your sharing, I found that you are a wise social network user as you are using and enjoying the services bring by the Internet while having a high level of privacy concerns. Yes, balance is everything. People claimed that it is hard to achieve balance in the life, but I believe that with hard works and strong determination, anyone can be successful and reach their goals in the future.
DeleteHye Sok Fern.
ReplyDeleteI have the experienced to involve in virtual community. Tat is when I joined a guild or union in certain games. All of us have the same interest and we have our own group chat. Instead of discuss about our interest we also chit-chat. We are rational for not digging about the privacy or anything they do not want to talk. in my experience, it is a short relationship because we are seldom to remain the connection when we are not playing the game. I think it is still a precious for me because I learnt many things from them and they are really funny.
Hi Jessie, thank you for your sharing about your past experience. As we can see, the weak ties in the virtual community did not promote a last long relationships. However, it let us learnt something new. Take for instance, you have become a more sociably person when you interacted with those unknown person on the Internet. "A coin has two sides", people claimed that the virtual community is not real, but, at the same time, we gained some new knowledge and experience through the virtual community.
DeleteHi Sokfern,
ReplyDeleteGood topic to discuss. The topic about "Virtual community" really make me think deeply about "visual+reality" also can "mutual communication" behind that title. For me, i think that this kind of things bring some of benefits and damages. Actually, we are the most instrument how to describe this and practically in our life. Traditional communication most beneficial and relevant to get meanings of "harmony" in communication. sometimes some of people have their own reason why to use this way in their life. In short, the terms of "anonymity, trust and sense of community" its depends to us not actually really give meanings behind that terms.
Hi Ruzimah, thank you for feedback and opinion. Yes, I agreed with you that we are the controller who in charge of the usage of the Internet. Hence, the Internet users must be aware of their use and have a clear division between the real and virtual community.
DeleteHye girls..Personally, I do agree that virtual community has brought pro and cons. This is because, sometimes it can be positive, and sometimes it can be negative. Again, its depends actually. How do we react to that, how do we response to that and how do we consume that is very important in order to keep update with the advancement of technology. I'd see virtual community as part of my life and it is very important, same as REALITY. Hehehhee.
ReplyDeleteDear Noraini, thank you for your reply and feedback. You're right, it is depending on our hands. Today, the virtual community has become part of our culture in the society. Take for instance, not only you, I believe that many of us intentionally or unintentionally are part of the virtual community. As you said, it brings advantages and disadvantages, so, people must be wise and careful when consuming the Internet.
DeleteHai sok fern. Bagi saya viral community bagus kerana yang jauh boleh didekatkan dengan berkongsi minat yang sama.
ReplyDeleteHi Jasmine, thank you for your compliment. Also, it acts as a platform for people to connect and build a strong relationship among each other as well. :)
Delete