Data Analysis report
Virtual Communities Complementing Geographical Communities
Virtual communities refer to associations of people with common interests, who relate remotely on various forms of media, usually over the internet. Since these interactions do not happen physically or face to face, numerous scholars have shared the view that they take up time and attention that would, otherwise, be shared with physically relating family, friends, or colleagues. Other scholars hold different views about these communities: They feel that, instead, they provide opportunities for building rewarding relationships on account of interests not realizable from an individual’s local interactions. Arguably, by increasing an individual’s scope of communal participation to spheres beyond their daily person to person interactions, virtual communities may provide a solution to individuals whose communal participation in their neighborhood fails to integrate them socially, perhaps due to absence of arena in which they find their strengths on interests. Further, some habits and interests are deemed deviant in some neighborhoods and physical communal settings, due to a lack exploration of their origins and intents. Consequently, people that find themselves interested in them are labeled as deviant, which may cause them difficulties in integrating within their local communities.
I belong to a virtual community, an online social network group that pursues sport motoring as a common activity. Initially, when I spoke about cars, bikes, horsepower, and sport engines, a large number of youths, especially girls in my community were not interested. It was until I obtained a few ideas of enhancing my vehicle to sport performance that my friends got its attention, which took our camaraderie to a different level: This was directly attributable to my participation in the virtual community, which gave me exposure to follow their ideas, which in turn got my friends’ attention. Therefore, I argue that virtual communities do not undermine physical relationships and meetings by limiting time spent with people: Instead, they complement the individuals’ physical social interactions by exposing them to people beyond geographical boundaries who, by not judging them, enhance their confidence to pursue and expose their interests both at home and online.
Exploring the Characteristics of Virtual Communities using the case of Sport Motoring
I am now 15 months a member in the The Sport Motoring Club; a private virtual community that uses the WeChat platform to manage a closed group of people who either own, admire, or are largely knowledgeable about motoring. The members’ use an array of WeChat application functionalities that ensure interactivity and multimedia content sharing. WeChat runs on mobile applications and personal computer web applications as long as there is internet connectivity and device compatibility (both hardware and software). The design and function of WeChat is evidence of the foundational notion that the internet is the “backbone of the global village” (Hampton 277). Further, smartphones are common devices which allow proliferation of virtual communities across the global space. There are certain functions of the application that strengthen the communal nature of the interactions.
First, every member of the group has access to each other’s telephone contacts from the group profile. The access to contacts means that there are not only group interactions, but also room for individuals with nuanced common personal interests but within the larger scope of the group to write to each other directly. The mechanism works well where an individual maintains interest in the larger group, but may want to share sentiments with individual group members who seem to exhibit common interests without disrupting the conversations in the whole group. For instance, I share the car make and model with another group member who happens to go to the same university. I started interacting physically with him when we quickly shared information off the group through text and telephone conversations, at a time when I needed a minor fix on my vehicle.
Second, administrators, usually the founders of the group, control the groups. This mechanism introduces some form of social control, which has been seen as lacking in the internet in general. Governments and communities have often concerned themselves with how to manage content for purposes of avoiding internet predation: This concern has led to fears that most internet applications have limited control of predation by individuals who share inappropriate materials (Marwick np). Although the group convener autocratically appoints administrators in WeChat, the control is self-evident, albeit highly subjective. For virtual communities, there is hardly any motivation to share content that is not in line with the groups’ objectives because of the systems’ capabilities that allow an administrator to delete inappropriate content.
Lastly, as in the case of the The Sport Motoring Club WeChat group, geographical distribution of members may be sparse, but within California, which allows us to plan motoring events within the state. These attract direct interpersonal interactions that would be resulting from a well-organized virtual community, thereby refuting the dystopian notion that the internet causes a decline of public community (Hamilton 278). The notion implies that there would be fewer public gatherings of a similar nature as the motoring events. On the contrary, virtual communities are suitable arena for planning such events since traditional event planning that occurred in the absence of the internet necessitated physical transmission of communication, which has its own limitations such as noise and distance, among others.
The Sport Motoring Club Interactions and how they enhance the Virtual Community
Virtual communities generally enhance the notion of community without undermining social ties that are based on physical interactions. Further, virtual communities may in many ways enhance physical communal interactions, in ways beyond which traditional media of communication and transport can. The impact of The Sport Motoring Club as a virtual community can be assessed from three questions explored by Hampton and Wellman (279). First, there is the question of whether the internet, which is the medium underlying WeChat and other virtual platforms, is replacing person-to-person relationships by limiting the time spent online against the time spent in physical interactions. Second, whether the internet is transforming communities into “virtual communities” which are enabling people to interact in new angles that traverse geographical barriers. Third, is the question as to whether the internet is not as transforming as is perceived, or is it just an addition to other communication means such as phones, cars, and planes, which enhance contact with non-proximal community members. From these three perspectives, it can be seen that virtual communities, which are supported by the internet, enhance communal interactions across time and space, without necessarily diminishing face-to-face interactions.
Question 1: Do virtual communities undermine person-to-person relations by taking up their time?
In the light of the first question, as to whether internet is undermining person-to-person relationships by taking up time that would be spent on such relationships, the experience with The Sport Motoring Club refutes. Virtual communities do not undermine personal ties or use up time that would have been used to enhance direct personal interaction. Face to face interactions are just but a method of communication used to pass messages that can be achieved through virtualized communication methods that have multimedia capability and interactivity. A few studies have shown that people using internet applications at home and at work have limited the time they spend with their family and colleagues respectively (Hampton 281). However, these studies did not clarify the communal effects that the internet has on those family and friends that can only be reached online and not physically. Second, a study quoted by Hampton and Wellman disclosed that there are numerous cases in which the time used by participants in virtual communities did not have a significant impact on the time spent with family, friends, and colleagues. The studies also explain that for the contradicting cases, the participants also participated in public events just like anyone else.
The experience at The Sport Motoring Club further refutes the notion of less time with family, friends, and social events. Most of the interactions on WeChat were during early mornings or late nights when the participants hardly had contact with friends, family, and co-workers. Being a hobby-oriented virtual community, they make time off their routine for it, like they do for physical sport motoring. A number of young motorists participating in the group were using the shared insights to aesthetically tune their vehicles, which they would showcase to their physical personal interactions. It was observed that their physical activities with the vehicles attracted the attention of friends, relatives, and co-workers who found their work attractive, and had intensified their ties with the motorists because of the impact they had on them. Based on these observations, it can be deduced that The Sport Motoring Club had the potential of transforming the domestic and occupational social lives of participants who may often be perceived as nerdy from their obsession with sport motoring. The activities on the virtual communities, in light of the above observations do not always undermine physical interactions at home, work, and in public settings. Instead, they sometimes enhance them.
Question 2: Is the internet transforming communities into “virtual communities” and traversing geographical barriers?
Internet has transformed how people interact in the modern world. Hampton and Wellman build on the works of other scholars to explain how online communities create electronic pathways that connect people in ways that cemented roads do not (Hampton 281). Further, virtual communities are constructed across national lines but are largely shaped by local contexts (Taylor 243). As such, virtual communities appear to provide a platform where new spheres of social interaction are created beyond a member’s daily context, yet providing an opportunity for one to exercise what they now to inspire others, leading to a cultural blend that shapes the behavior of the new virtual community. A new cultural disposition is created, which is maintained by shared interests, but transformed by blended ideations. The Sport Motoring Club is largely comprised of young Chinese motorists from California, with just a few members from outside the state but just at the peripheries. Most of them are International students across California. It is therefore evident that these interactions have traversed geographical barriers. Another important aspect of the group is that they occasionally organize motoring events such as rallies, fairs, and other forums. The events are a crucial occurrence because they illustrate how virtual communities can lead to somewhat of an expansion of physical interactions, a fact that has been undermined by despondent elements of online interactions. After conversing with a few members in one of the events, it was clear that productive friendship ties have been created within the forums. In light of the question, therefore, there is formation of virtual communities which is fast transforming the sense of community as has traditionally been known, to include people beyond physical and geographical barriers. Second, the formation of this virtual communities is accompanied by emergence of new cultures from ideas drawn from diverse local contexts which are signified by use of new language including; virtualized body language (e.g. emotive icons) and acronyms that shorten full text; elements that embody a new culture complete with language and new behavioral patterns.
Question 3: Is the internet less transforming as is often perceived?
Four components have been identified as characterizing a virtual community; membership, influence, fulfilment of needs, and emotional connections (Hamilton 1318). In The Sport Motoring Club, we share all the attributes above, which portrays the virtual communities as being more significant than simple communication. Membership is voluntary, yet the group has reached the maximum allowable limit of the platform. The virtual community has elicited interest that is beyond what was initially envisaged by the convener. As earlier stated, some member have found their social and emotional needs being met in the virtual group because they have a platform where they are no longer perceived and nerdy and deviant. Instead, their families, friends and colleagues have made connections with them as a result of their work on their automobiles which have showcased a unique area of talent. The significance of the internet and the platforms it underlies, therefore, cannot be considered ordinary, as has been with roads, telephone, and mass media.
From my experience with The Sport Motoring Club virtual communities, there are several tenets that most of the traditional media may not have at once, which make internet a revolutionary medium; interactivity, accessibility, multimedia capability, and connectivity across geographical space. Interactivity has been manifested by the immediate written responses by random members of the group immediately a question or a comment is raised. In a face to face discussion, multiple responses at the same time can be lost due to interference of each contributor’s voice. On the contrary, WeChat chats maintain the written response of members, even when they respond at the same time, thereby affording the sender of information the privilege of viewing all the responses. Accessibility is evidenced by the proliferation of smartphones, as well as internet access across the global space. Multimedia capabilities are seen in the ability to share pictures, videos, voice recordings, and text within the group. Due to global availability of internet and the smart devices, there no geographical limitations on what the virtual communities can achieve. The factor that makes internet applications that underlie virtual communities not ordinary platforms but revolutionary ones is that the above attributes are realized all at once in a single platform; WeChat is a case in point.
Conclusion
Contrary to common thought, virtual communities do not undermine physical interactions at home, work, or in public gatherings. Instead, they are capable of eliminating antisocial behavior by enabling some people, who have been alienated by their communities, to find relevance in the virtual communities, and even gain acceptance in their domestic and social settings. Through my participation in The Sport Motoring Club, I have found more people in my community interact with me more often after seeing the transformation on my automobile. Although they are not sport motoring fanatics, the uniqueness in the ideas I implement from the club have drawn their attention and given me some form of uniqueness. The formation of virtual communities and the ideations that lead to their behavioral patterns are a product of local communal interactions. As a result, they open new opportunities that traverse geographical and subjective limitations which traditional communities have been struggling. They may also be used as platforms for organizing physical meetings of members, thus, growing friendship ties and face to face interactions. Future studies should explore possibilities of enhancing family, neighborhood, and work related ties using virtual communities as tools.
Works Cited
Hamilton, Keith and Wellman, Barry. “Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb.” City & Community, vol. 2, no. 4, December 2003, pp. 277-311, Accessed 8 April 2020.
Hamilton, William, et al. “Streaming on Twitch: Fostering Participatory Communities of Play within Live Mixed Media”. CHI 2014, May 2014, ACM, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557048
Marwick, Alice. “To Catch a Predator? The MySpace Moral Panic”. First Monday, vol. 13, no. 6, 2 June 2006, Accessed 8 April 2020.
Taylor, TL. Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. MIT Press, 2012.