Angelyn Gan 21:49, 23 Sep 2005 (EST)
Contents |
The imagined virtual community is a group of participants who perceive themselves as part of a group, connected in some ways by the Internet. The traditional concept of ‘community’ was bound by geographic locality where relationships were generally mediated through the face-to-face communication of its members. (Grossberg, Wartella and Whitney, 1998, pp.38-9) Nevertheless, the boundaries have been eradicated with the advancement of information technology and the term ‘imagined’ describes the existence of these Virtual Communities without the physical, geographical or spatial boundaries that are available within traditional communities. The birth of both the online community and an imagined community allows individuals around the globe to communicate and share similar interests in the same community group via the Internet, with limitless geographical, physical and spatial boundaries, forming an imagined virtual community.
Imagined virtual communities are formed throughout the online world with the emphasis on creating a community using a variety of different technologies such as email, instant messaging, discussion boards, social networks, wikis, groupware, blogs, video games and online dating arenas. (Fitchter, 2005) These uses have thrived with an array of characteristics, genres and interests to choose from.
The majority of imagined virtual communities have at least one of three main goals, which are either to network and collaborate, provide emotional support or to improve quality of life. (Joinston, 2003) The size of imagined virtual communities varies, and performs on social and business levels.
Socially, the concept of an imagined virtual community occurs in internet chat rooms and online game communities. Chat rooms and virtual gaming communities form a system where individuals belong to a group and are able to communicate with others of similar interest, creating an imagined virtual community. Large networking websites such as Friendster too includes features such as discussion boards, support groups and email database unites individuals from all continents, causing communication to be cost effective and efficient in a safe, knowledged and understanding environment. Social networking websites allows individuals with similar interests to expand the networking opportunities, especially online dating websites. Being in an imagined virtual community, role playing occurs and individuals are able to learn their way around a community where knowledge of how that community functions constructs a group. (Rheingold, 2000) In the context of online dating as an imagined community, online daters play a role of who they assume themselves to be and belonging to an online dating community allows them to socially interact with individuals with shared wants and interests, allowing global and cultural barriers to be discarded for communication, with the non-existence boundaries.
Imagined virtual communities too are constructive in the business level, with uses such as customer support, discussion board, occupational chat, shared knowledge sites and swapping, and trading in an online marketplace such as eBay. The use of newsgroups and occupational chat rooms for all media related industries allows for the sharing of information, networking in the industry in your own home or office and the making of friendships in the same field. It is commonly used in the media industry for journalists and public relations consultants to communicate in a community that understands the industry and support network. eBay, a member based online marketplace constructs a virtual community by bringing together a group of individuals with interests in buying or selling items via the Internet. This is considered an imagined virtual community because of the non-existent geographical, physical and spatial boundaries that binds the universal traders on eBay.
Online Dating - Internet Chatrooms
Online Dating - Service Providers
Online Dating - Emotional Attachment in Online Dating
Online Dating - Business Models
Online Social Interaction - Forums, Message Boards & Newsgroups
Online Social Interaction - Email
Online Social Interaction - Behavioural Effect of Frequent Usage
Cultural Imperialism - The Internet
Fichter, D. (2005) The Many Forms of E-collaboration: Blogs, Wikis, Portals, Groupware, Discussion Boards and Instant Messaging, vol.29, no.4, pp. 48-50.
Grossberg, L., Wartella, E. and Whitney, D. (1998) Mediamaking: Mass Media in a Popular Culture, Thousand Oaks: Sage. ISBN 0761911774.
Joinson, A.N. (2003) "Sharing and Surfing: The Benefits of On-line Communities and Web Browsing," in Understanding the Psychology of Internet Behaviour: Virtual Worlds, Real Lives, New York: MacMillan, pp. 143-162. ISBN 0333984684.
Rheingold, H. (2000) The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, Retrieved October 8, 2005, from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/
Thomsen, Steven R., Straubhaar, Joseph D. & Bolyard, Drew M. (1998) "Ethnomethodology and the Study of Online Communities: Exploring the Cyber Streets" Information Research, 4(1) Retrieved October 7, 2005 from http://informationr.net/ir/4-1/paper50.html
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