Howard Rheingold’s “Introduction: The Virtual Community” proved to be a very easy read for me. Basically, he was just saying how awesome virtual communities are and how you can become a part of something real through the virtual communities. He says “People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk” (96). That is a lot to do in a virtual community! He gave the example of WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) and how involved he is with that. Well I’m not involved in anything of that extent (that you have to pay for I mean!) but I do have a Facebook account. All the things that Rheingold mentioned you can do in the WELL, you can do on Facebook. Facebook allows you to talk and share pictures with friends all over the world. It is a great tool to help stay in touch when at college, or at least that is what I have found.
Within the WELL, there are many different groups or conferences which you can be a part of based on your interests. I find that very similar to Facebook’s groups. My nine close friends and I have a Facebook group that is just for us and we post pictures in it and write little comments about what is going on in our college life. It is a great way to be able to talk to them without having to play “phone tag” since we all have such busy schedules.
As much as I enjoy talking to my friends on Facebook, I don’t think that it is the most effective way to meet new people. I prefer to get to know someone in person first before I friend them on Facebook, not the other way around. With Rheingold’s WELL example, he said that he went to parties where he didn’t recognize anyone because he had met them all online. That is where my guard comes up. Personally, I don’t think I would go to a party unless I didn’t know someone who was going to be there and had already met them in person. I think he’s brave to do that because there are a lot of deceitful people out there who could be trying to mislead about their real selves.
I do think that Facebook and other virtual communities like it have great qualities however they should be used responsibly and safely because no one really knows all that is out there. And I think Rheingold would agree with me.
2 comments:
Amy I completely agree with your example of facebook representing Rheingold's WELL. A way of interaction through the internet. Facebook has so many people getting involved in others lives by looking at pictures to seeing ones wall-to-wall interaction. I agree with you on the example you gave when Rheingold said that he atteneded a party and didn't know anyone because all from online. I personally would NEVER go somewhere and I tend to agree with you on that.
Amy, this was a good post. I agree that Facebook is kinda like WELL in a couple of ways, though I'm sure not entirely. I didn't know that you could make a different group for just you and your friends so that you could all see pictures of each other. I know there are privacy settings but that seems like its more than that. This is a good example of keeping in touch with friends in a virtual community and yes, I agree with you, I wouldn't meet someone on Facebook first, and then become friends with them. That seems backwards. Anyway, good post.
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