RESOURCE FILES

Chapter 7

Constructing Difference: Social Deviance

Virtual Communities in the Global Village

Ironically, we have learned to use the very technology that has physically separated us—cars, planes, phones, e-mail—to establish and maintain social relationships over long distances. ¹ For instance, virtual communities are groups of people who communicate with one another electronically about a common interest, even though they've never met in person and may reside far apart. Virtual communities can take the form of e-mail distribution lists, chat rooms, instant messaging groups, and cell phone communities.

Virtual communities can overcome the time and place constraints that limit meetings of more traditional face-to-face groups. So, for instance, if at 3 o'clock in the morning you can't sleep, you can go online, where you're bound to find someone with similar interests to talk to or exchange ideas.

These connections usually don't require huge investments of time, money, or energy. You can participate for any length of time at your own convenience. And they are long term in that they aren't disrupted, as real-world communities tend to be, when people move away.

In virtual communities, people often find social support and camaraderie that they have trouble establishing face to face. For instance, most elderly users of SeniorNet joined to gain access to information about resources for seniors. But most stay because of the companionship. The most popular activity among participants at this site is "chatting with others." ²

Similarly, members of MSWatch.com, a health care Web site designed to provide information to patients with multiple sclerosis, form emotionally supportive ties to others through their Internet interactions. ³

Can relationships formed online ever completely substitute for those established in the physical world? Can a virtual hug be as gratifying as a face-to-face hug? According to one sociologist, virtual communities can reach the highest levels of intimacy if the number of participants is kept relatively small, if admission to the group is controlled to foster friendliness and trust, and if people present themselves honestly. ⁴Indeed, people in virtual communities can do many of the things they'd do together in a face-to-face relationship: fight, flirt, console, criticize, nurture, share, grieve, and so forth.

Much of the research on this question shows that strong ties established online have many characteristics similar to strong "real world" ties, such as encouraging frequent contact and being mutually supportive. ⁵ Some people report that their closest friends are members of their electronic group. And I'm sure you've heard stories about people marrying someone they first met on the Internet.

However, virtual communities do have some disadvantages. For one thing, the interaction between individuals occurs exclusively in the domain of written words. In everyday life people provide a great deal of information through nonverbal cues, something absent from computer-based conversation.

In addition, a virtual community lacks the sense of commitment that traditionally binds groups together. A member can simply leave an interaction whenever she or he wants simply by "exiting" the session.

Furthermore, virtual communities cannot provide the sort of subtle biographical knowledge often established in traditional communities. Here's how one author contrasts virtual communities with the real-world community of her father, who had recently died in a plane crash:

[His neighbors] knew his comings and goings, his eccentricities. They had been to his house for dinner and heard his stories, his endless repertory of jokes, his theories. They had known when he had visitors and when he was out of town. They knew that he had been growing tomatoes and that he had worried that the tomatoes wouldn't ripen before the first frost. They argued with him at town meetings and read the letters he sent to the local paper. . . . Even if they hadn't known him well, they had seen him in his everyday life. ⁶

For this person, a virtual community could not provide the same relationships that real-world communities provide. But the ties that some people develop online can be just as fulfilling and just as supportive as traditional communities. Indeed, online relationships established with people worldwide may be more stimulating than relationships established in a local neighborhood, because they encourage the crossing of ethnic, racial, class, and cultural barriers.

The irony, of course, is that in virtual connections, community interaction has moved out of public spaces, making people's lives more physically isolated than ever before.

¹ Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. 1999. Net-surfers don't ride alone: Virtual communities as communities. In B. Wellman (Ed.), Networks in the global village. Boulder, CO: Westview.

² Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. 1999. Net-surfers don't ride alone: Virtual communities as communities. In B. Wellman (Ed.), Networks in the global village. Boulder, CO: Westview.

³ Weis, R., Stamm, K., Smith, C., Nilan, M., Clark, F., Weis, J., & Kennedy, K. 2003. Communities of care and caring: The case of MSWatch.com. Journal of Health Psychology, 8, 135–148.

⁴ Etzioni, A. 2000, February 10. E-communities build new ties, but ties that bind. New York Times.

⁵ Wellman, B., & Gulia, M. 1999. Net-surfers don't ride alone: Virtual communities as communities. In B. Wellman (Ed.), Networks in the global village. Boulder, CO: Westview.

⁶ Hafner, K. 1999, August 26. In real life's shadow, virtual life can pale, p. D10. New York Times.