Virtual Communities are an Illusion :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Virtual Communities be an IllusionDiscussions of the social effects of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and realistic(prenominal) corporation often focus on whether they pull people asunder or pack them together. John Perry Barlow describes his point of view on this matter in a very enlightening article, Is There a There in profit?. Barlow first describes his skepticism some virtual communities and finishes the article with a animateness altering tragedy. Amy Bruckman, who is responsible for the article, Finding Ones Own in Cyberspace explains the grandness of discovering a virtual community that best suits your needs. I feel that virtual communities and CMCs bring people together but also pull them apart more then together. In Barlows article, he describes how cyberspace has created its own community, or virtual community if you will, by bringing people together with crude interests and experiences. Like the community in contemporary America, virtual communities had a entrust where peoples hearts remained even if they physically moved around the country. The virtual community also provides a feeling of comfort from this large support group-like put up where tragedies one may encounter, are experienced through pop out and are work out by all. When Barlow experienced the sudden death of his wife, he had this to say close his virtual community, Those strangers, who had no arms to put around my shoulders, no eye to weep with mine, nevertheless saw me through. As neighbors do. This is the idea of a flood tide together, from a virtual community standpoint. One thing that Barlow points out about virtual communities is that they lack prana (the Hindu term for breath and spirit). He says, Prana is, to my mind, the literally vital element in the holy and unseen ecology of relationship...It is at the heart of the fundamental and profound difference between information and experience. This is what brings pitying relationships together. The body languag e, sex, tone of voice, smells, facial expressions, etc. are the things that make conduct, life These missing ingredients still lack in virtual communities to this day. According to Bruckmans article, she explains how to baring a virtual community that best suits ones needs. Some of the things she suggests for a virtual community can be easily correlated to finding a neighborhood where one would like to reside. The main determining factor she points out is self selection. As individuals, we know what we want/dont want, like/dislike, so the end is up to us to decide where we want to go.