So in college I majored in Culture, communication, and media studies. I was always really facsinated by subcultures of the internet so I took it upon myself to study deeper within the gamer psyche and the cultural restrictions it may or may not have in relation to how humans intereact with others in real life.

I wrote this essay on Virtual Communities for my Impacts of Technology class in 2007. Anyone who loves Graal may find this of interest. No copying, it's archived at NYU and you'll most likely be caught :-D

NewYorkerNick
Virtual Communities
October 18th 2007

What is often interpreted as a replacement to real-life communities, the virtual community as of recently has defined itself as a supplemental form of communication between active participants across the globe. When deciphering the meaning of community, the virtual community contains the necessary components for human interaction such as having a shared form of cultural or societal similarities. At the same time, debate is open for its deficiencies on platform and physically-inactive inter-connectivity, which contributes to a substitution or new branch rather than facilitation or an extending of real-world interaction. As the term is still being constructed, the structure itself can be interpreted as the shared interest that helps bring communities together despite distance, to create new forms of social engagements. This creates for new social orders that do not necessarily have to be considered as a characteristic in Web 2.0, but have to be considered carefully as they have the potential to revolutionize the way interaction takes place, on whatever mainstream.

According to Rheingold, the virtual community is still capable of allowing users to experience an exchange in knowledge, social support, gossip, and even falling in love. Because of physical absence, as he mentions, it is essentially easier to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little costintellectual leverage, social leverage, commercial leverage, and most important, political leverage, (Rheingold, intro). He ultimately believes that in order for people to conform to such a technology that has the ability to change the way we think and communicate so drastically, there must be an understanding of it in every important context politically, economically, socially, and cognitively.

As we have seen in the last century, mass mediated communication has been carefully delegated by the government, specifically the Federal Communications Commission, when it remained open for ways a citizen could be influenced. Television and Radio, among the two prime examples, have proven that the power of advertising or what could be deemed as inappropriate content by a sensitive community has the ability to alter demographics in such a way that is relevant to impacts on society as a whole. For example, because there was such an increase in viewers of television, the FCC continuously had to regulate misdemeanors and carefully consider what [curse] words, acts, or beliefs could be regulated on network or cable shows at specific times of the day, depending on a collaboration of social traditions, statistical viewership, and common social values established by legitimate or illegitimate community organizations across a nation. If the internet remains unregulated, it could lead to what was feared most about the democracy of television and radio.

Another important factor that should be considered attains to copyright laws that people can anonymously break if there is no regulation there to stop them besides a slap on the wrist. We have seen even in the last ten years how the government has attempted to stop illegal sharing of media by shutting down the first Napster yet still premiering television episodes on NBC are downloaded over a millions times in any given week (TorrentFreak). If the government or broadcast companies do little to stop these downloads, does it mean we will be entering a broadcasting revolution that changes the face of profiting for these media giants? According to Andrew Shapiro in his article The Net that Binds, when institutions resist to these acts of communicative revolution, it leaves decisions that were once held by higher powers in the hands of the people who define them. There will be people that wield their new power carelessly and people who acknowledge it to their benefits. Regardless, it serves to put activation in democratic values in real life communities. Perhaps big companies and high powers will try to catch up with the fast-paced changing medium the people have provided for themselves.

In terms of association, in a real life community, it is difficult to integrate within other economic or social classes. Social mobility for real life communities is rigid since the foundations that create a community such as education, income, and religion tend to remain in a particular geographical location. The virtual community has the ability to deconstruct economic backgrounds and create its own form of virtual capital based on a skill of networking. For example, a CEO for a major stock company, who has a disconnected sense of poverty, can create his own community online with others from a background he is unfamiliar with. However, online, he is an equal, causing him to feel impotent or small. Communicating with the world of cyberspace may be beyond his comprehension as he is surrounded by an inflated sense of success or ego in his real life. One example is how major celebrities and political leaders who have a MySpace have it run by more than one person, excluding the person that is named after it. Even though it is used for marketing purposes most of the time, how could a celebrity respond to a mass amount of emails from people without feeling overwhelmed? On the other side of the spectrum, an impoverished man can use online communities to their ultimate opportunity. Where a privileged man only sees obstacles and a waste of time, someone from a real life community, which is immersed in high rates of violence and poverty, can use a virtual community as an escape. Even more than just a means of escape, the online community can afford the tenants and residents of these real life poor communities to build an online social order that does not include the dangers and daily frustrations that come with interacting physically in their real urban life. It affords them the chance to relay information and create a sense of identity, not based on their economic status, which otherwise would be obstructed by the fear that breeds in crime-ridden real life communities across the globe.

The benefits of talking online truly show that physical appearance has little impact on what you say. This may help to hide bias people may have against one another based on race, sex, or other social differences. The click of a button speaks louder and clearer than a stuttering verbal phrase from an unfamiliar face. Does this give advantages to those who are incapable of communicating in the real world or does it introduce them to a world of virtual narratives that would only deteriorate their existence, or greatly alter it, in the real world? For example, it may be easy for anyone online to simply leave a community if they feel they do not belong or feel they can end it by clicking the exit button. But in real life, a person does not have that opportunity, so it could cause great difficulty especially since they are so used to communicating online. However, just like in real communities, a person can choose to stick with or leave crowds. What difference should it make how they communicate so long as they're comfortable? The virtual community finally saves that feeling of discomfort and enables users to put behind their differences and collaborate what they're finally trying to articulate, which real life has done a good job limiting them to visually or audibly.

Real life visual differences are becoming evident in online communities as well, such as in Second Life where the user gets to create their own unique look. Someone living in poverty may find it difficult to experience looking as what is socially presented to them by fashion magazines or current trends. In Second Life, a person is enabled to find or create their own trend, meeting a societal expectation that they didn't even know they needed, but now find satisfied by an online program. In opposition, a person who is required by their higher social circle to wear expensive clothing and present him or herself in certain manner may find it exhilarating to slum it up in a virtual community such as Second Life. In reality, it would be semi unacceptable for them to associate with the seedier parts of life, thus leaving them in a sense of entrapment. Second Life provides them a safer, albeit less mentally fulfilling, alternative.

Cognitively speaking, however, being sucked into a virtual environment that simulates life but is missing the components of physical touch and the graphic details that only real life can present, limits a persons understanding of what consequences are entailed in real life. When an economically-stunted individual becomes so enamored with their virtual self this can lead to many different repercussions. One of the less addressed repercussions is the prison-like mentality that is cultivated in a less wealthy person online that transcends to a feeling of complacency in their real life. Why should they feel the desire to strive for anything in their real life, when they can already obtain what they want from their virtual one? Their immediate emotion of mental euphoria sustains them just enough to kill their physical drives out in the real world. It is a good, clean trick to keep the masses happy and entertained with the generally inexpensive opportunities online without providing any real solutions to the growing problems of education and economics in their everyday lives. Cognitively, a wealthy person can be just as affected. When a wealthy person uses the internet to connect him to what he believes to be the shadier parts of life, he is ignoring the disintegration that is happening right outside his door, a couple of blocks away. He gets to escape to this somewhat censored version of what life is in a virtual community, thus stunting his mental evolution and comprehension of what being disadvantageous in the real world really encompasses.

When examining the definition of community, attaching virtual to it congests its roots and attempts to reestablish the ways a community is constructed. However, a virtual community acts as an extension but not entity of a real community. Anything we find in a virtual community simulates what real life is and its initial purpose is not necessarily to redefine a culture or cultures but to help connect people in such a way that brings them closer or helps them receive a better understanding of a real community. It gives alternative measures to the deficiencies that are found between social classes and cultures but sequentially allows for people to keep in bounds of their own preferences in terms of virtual class networking. Everyone can begin at zero and work their way up with the help of whomever they choose to influence them. The life someone is born to may feed on to your online life, still, but it generally leaves more paths for new styles of social order.  

tl;dr XD jk, I understand it is an essay so it has to be boring lol.  

Not boring to me.  

I remember reading this thing on facebook like a year ago. Ah nostalgia, you get the best of me.  

The Internet is a tool. A tool is anything that uses logical science to solve a certain problem. In this case, connection. Before the internet, social connection was established through the phone, pagers, etc. Very subtle connections, of course. The Internet provides a much more extensive connection and is accessible to anyone.

Everything that happens n the Internet has a real life alternative. For instance, Graal. There are "intentional communities" that represent medieval villages and have souvenir shops, monuments, museums, etc. The only difference between these 2 comparisons is that Graal is virtual and well, immediate access. Very seldom will you see 2 thousand people show up to a model village. This happens where I live, however (Nova Scotia, aka New Scotland). There are old Scottish villages and they hold festivals there every year with medieval Scottish games, shops, museums, etc. It reminds me of Graal in real life form. Jousting at this community event is like sparring. Except I'm not much of a fan of it on Graal. All I'm saying is that the Internet is like a...synthetic alternative to everything that already exists.

Someone once told me that existence is based on thought. Even though Dragons right now are myths, they still exist. Just not in physical form. They exist as a thought, a theory, an idea. So we can create something out of our imagination and the thought alone creates it's existence, if that makes sense. The Internet is the one place we can bring those non-physical existences to life. Which is why so many people find something enjoyable and stick with it very often.  

thats very good (sorry NYN im a big fan of you but i only read 2 paragraphs)  

You forgot a bunch of commas bro  

wht did u get for it??  

That was pretty interesting, you're actually a really good writer! So this was in 2007, have you already graduated?  

Posted by MattKan

You forgot a bunch of commas bro

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

There. Yeah I used to run on quite a bit. I always had a problem with that. I don't remember if I got an A- or a B+ on that but I do remember my professor reminding me to condense a bit. I was a better writer my senior year probably but damn I haven't written something that long since. All nighters... woooo...

I graduated in 2009. This was my sophomore year.  

Nick that was quite an interesting read. I agree with you on many points and your diction is vivid. You should get back to writing cause you got some skills.