Based on the readings and videos on online community, there was no specific definition for online community. Baym (2010) explained the definition of online community through the five qualities of : space, practice, shared resources, shared identities, and interpersonal relations . However, from my understanding of the readings I can describe it as a group of people who they have interest on something specific , such as TV show, and where each member of this group can attack more people, to finally form an entity that is just like the local community called online community. The members are not from a specific location, profession, or age, but they all share their feeling, thoughts, ideas, and support each other. After a long time of online interactions, they can meet in certain place face-to-face like any family reunion.
I think that the difference between a community and random group can be seen in political topics or discussions because people will always have different opinions. The random group is smaller in number, its members might already know each others offline, and have interest in specific religion, ethnic, politic topics or certain profession. Therefore, when a political conflict arises, they would have more solidity and can solve the problem easier or compromise the politics discussions to maintain peace. However, the opposite is true for the online community, where political discussions can create divided and problems that are difficult to solve.
People get involved in online communities for many reasons:
- They do not have the time to form face-to-face relationships because they work long hours
- They work in an office where they have plenty of spare time that might borer them.
- For emotional support, for example, if someone’s parent passed away and he or she lives in a place away from their family members or friends.
- If they feel ugly and have low self-esteem because of their face features or any kind of disability, they decide not to socialize fear of social criticism.
- If somebody is not sociable, but know that he or she can express their feelings better in writing, they definitely would rather to socialize online.
I am a member of the “Jerusalem’s Families” online community. My brother, who lives in Maryland, established this community last year so we can have friends who they or their parents were born in Jerusalem. It doesn’t matter how old are you, what is your religion, where you live now, what is your profession or level of education. We started last year with 12 members, today; we are more than 1950 members. We talk about different topics (politics, art, music…We posts paints, jokes, photos, poems blogs…etc) nothing specific. Thu, we feel like a family, support each other in everyway, and planning to do like a family reunion in Jerusalem very soon so we can meet face-to-face.
Baym (2010) explained two ways that online communities can fit into our social lives by civic and political engagement. Baym argued that people who use the internet and members of in online communities are more sociable, have more neighbors and friends, engage more in clubs and associations to collect charities to help their communities, more educated, and more likely to engage in politics offline.
It is so interesting that your brother created an online community! That is really special that it is based upon your nationality. Even when there’s people you’ve never met before, you share a special bond with them. It’s very fascinating how people can get so close in online communities without ever meeting them in real life.
So true,clarissa we do have a special bond and we all feel like one family and support each other. The idea started when we wanted to find our family roots to do the family tree, so we created a special community just for the Asali family from all over the world. Then we extended the idea to make it as it is now.
That’s super awesome that you guys are planning a trip to Jerusalem! That should be really fun and interesting. Would this trip have been something you would have done on your own or was it prompted by the online community?
You bring a good point of time management and online communities. People are moving so fast in today’s world that it does become a “chore” to meet someone in person to speak about a TV Show or Emotional situations. The outlet of online communities are convenient and allow users to log in at the time that best suits them.
Great blog!
It’s good that your brother started a community and that it has really grown. Many times people get into communities in order to commication with people that they can relate too. Hope you get to have the “family reunion” in order to meet some of the people that you have been communicating with.
My parents were born in Jerusalem, but I was born and raised up in Kuwait. When I was a little kid my dad started a community for all people who lives in Kuwait and have the same national origion. At that time thre was no computers, so he couldn’t expand it globally as we are doing now with the exsistance of the internet and SNS. Therefor, I grow up seeing my dad doing this ( looking always at his origion and old people), even though he passedaway 20 years ago, but what he did is still there and people they gather together, sing the songs that he wrote for them about Jerusalem and his extreme love and hope to one day go back home. I have 3 brothers, and 2 sisters each one of us lives in different country that is thousands of mile away from each others. But with CMC, I don’t feel as bad as my dad used to feel all his life away from his home country and his family members, and that’s because I talk to them everyday on Skype and Facebook.
Yes, when there is a common interest in a group of people, they can expand and enlarge themselves because they would have a special bond as Clarissa described it. And yes, this is something I would do by myself ( to go to Jerusalem ) because I used to go there a lot when I was a little kid and have a lot of good memories even though I never lived their. Besides, 98% of our community members lives outside Jerusalem everywhere in the world, but we all still have family members in Jerusalem, so whenever we decide to meet their it’s going to be Awesome and I’m sure that we won’t feel like strangers who would meet for the first time, but as one family traveling to visit the rest of their family members.
I think that’s really cool that all of the members of your group will get to meet in Jerusalem! It’s amazing how the internet can really bring people together. I don’t think that people that join online communities are antisocial. If anything I think they are more social because I have friends in real life and a boyfriend, but I still participate in some online communities.