What makes a Community?
Does Technology Provide?
com·mu·ni·ty
kəˈmyo͞onədē/
noun
1. a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common.
2. a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=community+definition
According to Google, these are the two definitions for what make a community. Though one can argue that the technology does not provide enough to allow a community to exist there are many things that technology is getting right. First of all, my main reason in favor of technology providing ways to form a community include giving individuals the ability to share their ideas with others in a way that might not be made possible without technology such as this Blog which is being typed and read. this can be done from any time and anywhere, so long as there is a way to access to this post. This can not be said of more traditional communities where ideas are shared in a localized spot.
On the other hand, my main reason against technology providing a way to form community is its polarizing effect in which people are more inclined to be part of communities that share their ideals but are seldom inclined to opening themselves to contradictory view points and resolving issues. In a traditional community individuals would be more inclined to remain unified as they have more than one interest to hold them together (and hopefully gain skills to resolve these issues), but in an online community, one can just change their affiliation by joining another community since each are only held together by one interest and no longer have to interact with their previous affiliation.
To conclude, I do agree that technology does provide new ways to create community amongst its users, but I have some concerns with individuals not gaining certain social skills that one would gain from a traditional community. Instead of having one unified community, technology has created many smaller specialized communities. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=community+definition
According to Google, these are the two definitions for what make a community. Though one can argue that the technology does not provide enough to allow a community to exist there are many things that technology is getting right. First of all, my main reason in favor of technology providing ways to form a community include giving individuals the ability to share their ideas with others in a way that might not be made possible without technology such as this Blog which is being typed and read. this can be done from any time and anywhere, so long as there is a way to access to this post. This can not be said of more traditional communities where ideas are shared in a localized spot.
On the other hand, my main reason against technology providing a way to form community is its polarizing effect in which people are more inclined to be part of communities that share their ideals but are seldom inclined to opening themselves to contradictory view points and resolving issues. In a traditional community individuals would be more inclined to remain unified as they have more than one interest to hold them together (and hopefully gain skills to resolve these issues), but in an online community, one can just change their affiliation by joining another community since each are only held together by one interest and no longer have to interact with their previous affiliation.
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