When I was training to be an anthropologist back in the seventies most of the people I knew were queasy with the concept of community that was non-physically mediated. People had begun to describe their professional groups, clubs, and such, as communities. The concept of a community as a physically bounded entity began slipping.
We were taught that communities had physical boundaries, means of recruitment, and rituals, or rites that reinforced membership. It went on. But you discovered rapidly that just telling someone their club wasn’t a community got you nowhere. Those pesky, untrained folks looked at you oddly and continued to do as they pleased. And this was before anything that resembled the internet that we know existed. Splendid.
By the time I started working as an applied anthropologist, I was smart enough to avoid getting involved in a discussion about community. The internet was in the offing, and all bets were off. Getting in the middle of a discussion on what constitutes a community could result in unfortunate disagreements.
Today it woud be a hardship to rip people loose from their electronically mediated associations. Many of us spend more time in these “communities” than we do in the traditional “face to face” modes that both made and limited our grandparents lives. Let’s see Texts, video chats, emails, and telephone calls. Oh , how could I forget? Blogs!
Most likely I’ve missed something because I don’t know about it yet, or haven’t started using it.
Being that I do blog, I’ve noticed over the years that I spend a good bit of time within a network of fellow bloggers. Through their blogs, and through comments and other networked connections, I know more about them than my physical neighbors. We read each other’s blogs, see each other’s comments, and are familiar.
I know pet names – Parker, White Paws, Bear, and others. I know some of their professional histories, tastes in music, reading, and politics. The group of associates both grows and contracts. When someone goes silent we mourn.
This may not be a community in the old traditional sense, but it is something that has grown, morphed, and is developing as we discuss its nature.
It is something more than the sum of the technology that allowed its creation. It is very much in tune with the human nature that utilizes it and bends it into a recognizable culture.
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Best community ever!
❤️
I treasure it. I was thinking about it this morning when I woke up. A couple of people have vanished and I worry because I know what they were struggling with last I heard. And, if anyone ever says, “It’s not a real community” I’ll show them who paid for Bear and Teddy’s care while I was exiled from them with a cracked femur. One of my long-time blogging pals went to San Diego, visited “my” park, bought the t-shirt and sent it to me. I hope I’m as good a community to my blogging pals as they are to me.
I think the criticism was valid years ago. But a lot has changed in the past 15 to 20 years. The “depth” of the online communities is sometimes deeper than the weak physical ones.
Interesting that the etymology is so close to communism, the two obviously have the same origin, yet that word is something people fear like crazy
The blogging community is a fun way to make new friends
Yes!
When I was watching performances at a folk festival recently, I kept thinking about how much my blogging friends would like certain acts. I couldn’t decide whether you would like it, Lou. You know, been there, done that. I’ve never actually had the courage to go to the session bar because I don’t feel folkie enough, but I would have gone with you.
I’ve been practicing tha last couple of days, I would not sit in now as things are, It’ll take months of practice again to get there. And then I’d probably be chickenshit of doing it. Sigh!
Very true. sometimes we’re willing to share details with strangers that we wouldn’t want closer contacts–esp relatives–to hear about. And our online friends, like a counsellor or shrink, only hears our side of the story, so can’t judge us in the (possibly negative) light of what actually happened. 😉 A win-win for bloggers.
I admire all the hard work that goes into the seemingly flawless performances.
Those “pesky, untrained folks,” ha ha! Like I mentioned to you in the past, I was surprised to hear, during my time at Brandeis in 2004-2007, my advisor (Dave Jacobson) was publishing papers on virtual communities, defining them traditionally (all except physical space I guess). He was an active member of some community I don’t even remember anymore, like a bulletin board, all text-based with chat rooms – remember those? It was a concept that captured my imagination and it shaped my personal definition of community ever since.
In my day -70’s he would have been read out of the Anthro “Community” – note it was OK for them to use the term as a sort of virtual community, but not to study it. Tony Leeds one of my advisors, and a friend, felt all that stuff was typical elite chauvinism – elites don’t like to be studied.