Virtual community: Difference between revisions

Virtual communities all encourage interaction, sometimes focusing around a particular interest or just to communicate. Some virtual communities do both. Community members are allowed to interact over a shared passion through various means: [[Internet forum|message boards]], [[chat room]]s, [[social network]]ing World Wide Web sites, or virtual worlds.<ref>{{cite magazine|author=Hof, R. D.|author2= Browder, S.|author3=Elstrom, P.|date=5 May 1997|title=Internethacking Communities|magazine=Business Week}}</ref> Members usually become attached to the community world, logging in and out on sites all day every day, which can certainly become an addiction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ridings |first1=Catherine M. |last2=Gefen |first2=David |date=2006-06-23 |title=Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2004.tb00229.x |journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=00 |doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.2004.tb00229.x |s2cid=21854835 |issn=1083-6101 |access-date=18 November 2022 |archive-date=17 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230117173521/https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/10/1/JCMC10110/4614455 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The traditional definition of a community is of geographically circumscribed entity (neighborhoods, villages, etc.). Virtual communities are usually dispersed geographically, and therefore are not communities under the original definition. Some online communities are linked geographically, and are known as community websites. However, if one considers communities to simply possess boundaries of some sort between their members and non-members, then a virtual community is certainly a community.<ref name="autogenerated1998Pears-1998">{{cite book|last=Pears|first= Iain|date=1998|title=An Instance of the Fingerpost|location =London|publisher=Jonathan Cape}}</ref> Virtual communities resemble real life ''[[communities]]'' in the sense that they both provide support, information, friendship and acceptance between strangers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wellman |first=B |year=1999 |title=Networks in the global village: life in contemporary communities |publisher=Avalon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhuOBRPS-pUC&q=impacts+of+virtual+communities&pg=PA331 |isbn=9780813368214 |access-date=4 November 2020 |archive-date=12 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512105935/https://books.google.com/books?id=vhuOBRPS-pUC&q=impacts+of+virtual+communities&pg=PA331 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While in a virtual community space, users may be expected to feel a sense of belonging and a mutual attachment among the members that are in the space.

One of the most influential part about virtual communities is the opportunity to communicate through several media platforms or networks. Now that virtual communities exists, this had leveraged out the things we once did prior to virtual communities, such as postal services, fax machines, and even speaking on the telephone. Early research into the existence of media-based communities was concerned with the nature of [[virtual reality|reality]], whether communities actually could exist through the media, which could place virtual community research into the social sciences definition of ontology. In the seventeenth century, scholars associated with the [[Royal Society]] of London formed a community through the exchange of letters.<ref name="autogenerated1998Pears-1998"/> "Community without propinquity", coined by urban planner [[Melvin Webber]] in 1963 and "community liberated", analyzed by [[Barry Wellman]] in 1979 began the modern era of thinking about non-local community.<ref>{{cite book|last=Webber|first=Melvin|year=1963|chapter=Order in Diversity: Community without Propinquity|pages=23–54|title=Cities and Space: The Future Use of Urban Land|editor=J. Lowdon Wingo|location=Baltimore|publisher=Johns Hopkins Press}} {{cite journal|last=Wellman|first=Barry|title=The Community Question: The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=84|issue=5|date=March 1979|pages=1201–31|jstor=2778222}}</ref> As well, [[Benedict Anderson]]'s ''[[Imagined Communities]]'' in 1983, described how different technologies, such as national newspapers, contributed to the development of national and regional consciousness among early nation-states.<ref>{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=Benedict|date=1991|title=Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism|location=London|publisher=Verso}}</ref> Some authors that built their theories on Anderson's imagined communities have been critical of the concept, claiming that all communities are based on communication and that virtual/real dichotomy is disintegrating, making use of the word "virtual" problematic or even obsolete.<ref>{{cite book|last=Prodnik|first=Jernej|chapter=Post-Fordist Communities and Cyberspace|editor=H. Breslow|editor2= A. Mousoutzanis|title=Cybercultures: Mediations of Community, Culture, Politics|year=2012|publisher=Rodopi|location=Amsterdam, New York|pages=75–100|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/111293835/Prodnik-Jernej-Post-Fordist-Communities-and-Cyberspace-A-Critical-Approach|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=5 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305174341/https://www.scribd.com/doc/111293835/Prodnik-Jernej-Post-Fordist-Communities-and-Cyberspace-A-Critical-Approach|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[User experience]] is the ultimate goal for the program or software used by an internet community, because user experience will determine the software's success.<ref name="framework">{{cite journal |last1=Sieckenius de Souza |first1=Clarisse |last2=Preece |first2=Jenny |title=A framework for analyzing and understanding online communities |journal= Interacting with Computers |date=June 2004 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=579–610}}</ref> The software for social media pages or virtual communities is structured around the users' experience and designed specifically for online use.

User experience testing is utilized to reveal something about the personal experience of the human being using a product or system.<ref name="Morgan KaufmannTullis-2016">{{cite book |last1=Tullis |first1=Thomas |last2=Albert |first2=William |title=Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics |date=2016 |publisher=Morgan Kaufmann |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-0-12-415781-1}}</ref> When it comes to testing user experience in a software interface, three main characteristics are needed: a user who is engaged, a user who is interacting with a product or interface, and defining the users' experience in ways that are and observable or measurable.<ref name="Morgan KaufmannTullis-2016" />

The widespread use of the Internet and virtual communities by millions of diverse users for socializing is a phenomenon that raises new issues for researchers and developers. The vast number and diversity of individuals participating in virtual communities worldwide makes it a challenge to test usability across platforms to ensure the best overall user experience. Some well-established measures applied to the usability framework for online communities are speed of learning, productivity, user satisfaction, how much people remember using the software, and how many errors they make.<ref name="Preece-2001">{{cite journal |last1=Preece |first1=Jenny |title=Socialility and Usability in Online Communities: Determining and Measuring Success |journal=Behaviour & Information Technology |date=2001 |volume=20 |issue=5 |pages=347–356 |doi=10.1080/01449290110084683 |s2cid=14120302 }}</ref>

The human computer interactions that are measured during a usability experience test focus on the individuals rather than their social interactions in the online community. The success of online communities depend on the integration of usability and social semiotics. Usability testing metrics can be used to determine social codes by evaluating a user's habits when interacting with a program. Social codes are established and reinforced by the regular repetition of behavioral patterns.<ref name="SemioticsChandler-2007">{{cite book |last1=Chandler |first1=Daniel |title=Semiotics: The Basics |date=2007 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxon |edition=3}}</ref> People communicate their social identities or [[culture code]] through the work they do, the way they talk, the clothes they wear, their eating habits, domestic environments and possessions, and use of leisure time. Usability testing metrics can be used to determine social codes by evaluating a user's habits when interacting with a program.The information provided during a usability test can determine demographic factors and help define the semiotic social code. Dialogue and social interactions, support information design, navigation support, and accessibility are integral components specific to online communities. As virtual communities grow, so do the diversity of their users. However, the technologies are not made to be any more or less intuitive. Usability tests can ensure users are communicating effectively using social and semiotic codes while maintaining their social identities.<ref name="Preece-2001" /> Efficient communication requires a common set of signs in the minds of those seeking to communicate.<ref name="SemioticsChandler-2007" /> As technologies evolve and mature, they tend to be used by an increasingly diverse set of users. This kind of increasing complexity and evolution of technology does no necessarily mean that the technologies are becoming easier to use.<ref name="Morgan KaufmannTullis-2016" /> Usability testing in virtual communities can ensure users are communicating effectively through social and semiotic codes and maintenance of social realities and identities.<ref name="SemioticsChandler-2007" />

Recent studies have looked into development of health related communities and their impact on those already suffering health issues. These forms of social networks allow for open conversation between individuals who are going through similar experiences, whether themselves or in their family.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Eysenbach |first=G |year=2008 |title= The Impact of the Internet on Cancer Outcomes |journal=CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians |volume=53 |issue=6 |pages=356–371 |doi=10.3322/canjclin.53.6.356 |pmid=15224975 |citeseerx=10.1.1.526.4309 |s2cid=10192148 }}</ref> Such sites have so grown in popularity that now many health care providers form groups for their patients by providing web areas where one may direct questions to doctors. These sites prove especially useful when related to rare medical conditions. People with rare or debilitating disorders may not be able to access support groups in their physical community, thus online communities act as primary means for such support. Online health communities can serve as supportive outlets as they facilitate connecting with others who truly understand the disease, as well as offer more practical support, such as receiving help in adjusting to life with the disease.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/04/04/135106113/patients-with-rare-diseases-connect-online |title=Web Communities Help Patients With Rare Diseases |website=NPR.org |publisher=NPR |access-date=2012-07-10 |archive-date=18 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018152136/http://www.npr.org/2011/04/04/135106113/patients-with-rare-diseases-connect-online |url-status=live }}</ref> Each patient on online health communities are on there for different reasons, as some may need quick answers to questions they have, or someone to talk to.Involvement in social communities of similar health interests has created a means for patients to develop a better understanding and behavior towards treatment and health practices.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Neal |first1=L. |last2=Lindgagarrd |first2=G. |last3=Oakley |first3=K. |last4=Hansen |first4=D. |last5=Kogan |first5=S. |last6=Leimeister |first6=J.M. |last7=Selker |first7=T. |year=2006 |title=Online Health Communities|journal=CHI|pages=444–447 |url=http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb7/ibwl/leimeister/pub/JML_109.pdf |access-date=10 July 2012 |archive-date=12 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712151749/http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb7/ibwl/leimeister/pub/JML_109.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cocciolo |first1=A. |last2=Mineo |first2=C. |last3=Meier |first3=E. |title=Using Online Social Networks to Build Healthy Communities: A Design-based Research Investigation|page= 1–10 |url=http://www.thinkingprojects.org/bhc_paper.pdf |access-date=10 July 2012 |archive-date=15 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015141134/http://www.thinkingprojects.org/bhc_paper.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Some of these users could have very serious life-threatening issues which these personal contexts could become very helpful to these users, as the issues are very complex.<ref name="Huh 212–225-2016">{{Cite journal |last1=Huh |first1=Jina |last2=Kwon |first2=Bum Chul |last3=Kim |first3=Sung-Hee |last4=Lee |first4=Sukwon |last5=Choo |first5=Jaegul |last6=Kim |first6=Jihoon |last7=Choi |first7=Min-Je |last8=Yi |first8=Ji Soo |date=2016-10-01 |title=Personas in online health communities |journal=Journal of Biomedical Informatics |language=en |volume=63 |pages=212–225 |doi=10.1016/j.jbi.2016.08.019 |pmid=27568913 |pmc=5268468 |issn=1532-0464 }}</ref> Patients increasingly use such outlets, as this is providing personalized and emotional support and information, that will help them and have a better experience.<ref name="Huh 212–225-2016"/> The extent to which these practices have effects on health are still being studied.

In his book ''[[The Wealth of Networks]]'' from 2006, [[Yochai Benkler]] suggests that virtual communities would "come to represent a new form of human communal existence, providing new scope for building a shared experience of human interaction".<ref name="Benkler-2006">{{cite book|last=Benkler|first=Yochai|year=2006|title=The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom|url=http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks_Chapter_10.pdf|access-date=26 November 2013|archive-date=10 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910191017/http://www.benkler.org/Benkler_Wealth_Of_Networks_Chapter_10.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Although Benkler's prediction has not become entirely true, clearly communications and social relations are extremely complex within a virtual community. The two main effects that can be seen according to Benkler are a "thickening of preexisting relations with friends, family and neighbours" and the beginnings of the "emergence of greater scope for limited-purpose, loose relationships".<ref name="Benkler-2006" /> Despite being acknowledged as "loose" relationships, Benkler argues that they remain meaningful.

Previous concerns about the effects of Internet use on community and family fell into two categories: 1) sustained, intimate human relations "are critical to well-functioning human beings as a matter of psychological need" and 2) people with "[[social capital]]" are better off than those who lack it. It leads to better results in terms of political participation.<ref name="Benkler-2006" /> However, Benkler argues that unless Internet connections actually displace direct, unmediated, human contact, there is no basis to think that using the Internet will lead to a decline in those nourishing connections we need psychologically, or in the useful connections we make socially. Benkler continues to suggest that the nature of an individual changes over time, based on social practices and expectations. There is a shift from individuals who depend upon locally embedded, unmediated and stable social relationships to networked individuals who are more dependent upon their own combination of strong and weak ties across boundaries and weave their own fluid relationships. Manuel Castells calls this the "networked society".<ref name="Benkler-2006" />

The gaming community is extremely vast and accessible to a wide variety of people, However, there are negative effects on the relationships "gamers" have with the medium when expressing identity of gender. [[Adrienne Shaw]] notes in her 2012 article "Do you identify as a gamer? Gender, race, sexuality, and gamer identity", that gender, perhaps subconsciously, plays a large role in identifying oneself as a "gamer".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shaw|first=Adrienne|date=2012|title=Do you identify as a gamer? Gender, race, sexuality, and gamer identity|journal=New Media & Society|volume=14 | issue = 1 |pages=28–44|doi=10.1177/1461444811410394|s2cid=206727217}}</ref> According to Lisa Nakamura, representation in video games has become a problem, as the minority of players from different backgrounds who are not just the stereotyped white teen male gamer are not represented.<ref name=":03Nakamura-2013">{{Cite book |last=Nakamura |first=Lisa |date=2013-09-13 |title=Cybertypes |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203699188 |doi=10.4324/9780203699188|isbn=9780203699188 }}</ref>

Rheingold's definition contains the terms "social aggregation and personal relationships" (page 3). Lipnack and Stamps (1997)<ref name=":0Lipnack-1997">{{Cite book|title=Virtual teams: reaching across space, time, and organizations with technology|last=Lipnack|first=Jessica|date=1997|publisher=Wiley|editor=Stamps, Jeffrey|isbn=978-0471165538|location=New York|oclc=36138326|url=https://archive.org/details/virtualteamsreac00lipn}}</ref> and Mowshowitz (1997) point out how virtual communities can work across space, time and organizational boundaries; Lipnack and Stamps (1997)<ref name=":0Lipnack-1997" /> mention a common purpose; and Lee, Eom, Jung and Kim (2004) introduce "desocialization" which means that there is less frequent interaction with humans in traditional settings, e.g. an increase in virtual socialization. Calhoun (1991) presents a [[dystopia]] argument, asserting the impersonality of virtual networks. He argues that IT has a negative influence on offline interaction between individuals because virtual life takes over our lives. He believes that it also creates different personalities in people which can cause frictions in offline and online communities and groups and in personal contacts. (Wellman & Haythornthwaite, 2002). Recently, Mitch Parsell (2008) has suggested that virtual communities, particularly those that leverage Web 2.0 resources, can be pernicious by leading to attitude polarization, increased prejudices and enabling sick individuals to deliberately indulge in their diseases.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Pernicious virtual communities: Identity, polarisation and the Web 2.0 |author=Parsell, M. |journal=Ethics and Information Technology |volume=10 |issue=1|pages=41–56 |doi=10.1007/s10676-008-9153-y |year=2008 |s2cid=33207414 }}</ref>

There are standing issues with gender and race on the online community as well, where only the majority is represented on the screen, and those of different background and genders are underrepresented.<ref name=":03Nakamura-2013"/>