Online community
The rise in popularity of Web 2.0 websites has allowed for easier real-time communication and connection to others and facilitated the introduction of new ways for information to be exchanged.
They may encourage learners to discuss and learn about real-world problems and situations, as well as to focus on such things as teamwork, collaborative thinking and personal experiences.
With time more advanced features have been added into forums; the ability to attach files, embed YouTube videos, and send private messages is now commonplace.
Common access levels include the following: Social networks are platforms allowing users to set up their own profile and build connections with like minded people who pursue similar interests through interaction.
Another approach argues that "online community" is a metaphor and that contributors actively negotiate the meaning of the term, including values and social norms.
[34] Sociologist Barry Wellman presents the idea of "globalization" – the Internet's ability to extend participants' social connections to people around the world while also aiding them in further engagement with their local communities.
Elliot Volkman[36] points out several categories of people that play a role in the cycle of social networking, such as: An article entitled "The real value of on-line communities," written by A. Armstrong and John Hagel of the Harvard Business Review,[37] addresses a handful of elements that are key to the growth of an online community and its success in drawing in members.
A similar model can be found in the works of Lave and Wenger, who illustrate a cycle of how users become incorporated into virtual communities using the principles of legitimate peripheral participation.
A study published in the same journal[57] looks at how social networking can foster individual well-being and develop skills which can improve the learning experience.
"Gaming culture" offers individuals personal experiences, development of creativity, as well an assemblance of togetherness that potentially resembles formalized social communication techniques.
[70][71][72] Moreover, allowing patients to collaborate anonymously in some of online health communities suggests users a non-judgmental environment to share their problems, knowledge, and experiences.
[73] However, recent research has indicated that socioeconomic differences between patients may result in feelings of alienation or exclusion within these communities, even despite attempts to make the environments inclusive.
Although they can promote a vast array of positive qualities, such as relationships without regard to race, religion, gender, or geography,[75] they can also lead to multiple problems.
[94] For example, Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi committed suicide in 2010 after his roommate secretly filmed him in an intimate encounter and then streamed the video over the Internet.
Members of an elite online community use hazing to display their power, produce inequality, and instill loyalty into newcomers.
[98] Elite members of the in-group may haze by employing derogatory terms to refer to newcomers, using deception or playing mind games, or participating in intimidation, among other activities.
[99] "[T]hrough hazing, established members tell newcomers that they must be able to tolerate a certain level of aggressiveness, grossness, and obnoxiousness in order to fit in and be accepted by the BlueSky community".
Even when a person takes measures to protect their anonymity and privacy revelations by Edward Snowden a former contractor at the Central Intelligence Agency about mass surveillance programs conducted by the US intelligence services involving the mass collection of data on both domestic and international users of popular websites including Facebook and YouTube as well as the collection of information straight from fiber cables without consent appear to show individuals privacy is not always respected.
However, the information contained as well as the users' credentials cannot always be trusted, with the internet giving a relatively anonymous medium for some to fraudulently claim anything from their qualifications or where they live to, in rare cases, pretending to be a specific person.
are posing new challenges for all levels of law enforcement in combating many kinds of crimes including harassment, identity theft, copyright infringement, etc.
[120] Laws must continually adapt to the ever-changing landscape of social media in all its forms; some legal scholars contend that lawmakers need to take an interdisciplinary approach to creating effective policy whether it is regulatory, for public safety, or otherwise.
When the ongoing Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV 2) otherwise known as COVID 19, pandemic began, online communities and digital space became increasingly important.
[122][125][126][127] The waves of COVID 19 and the associated dangers and containment measures of the airborne disease led to increased feelings of anxiety, fear, stress, and loneliness.
[127][131] By using Zoom and other virtual platforms educators, students, and scholars alike were able to maintain social distancing while creating connections to learn about themselves and the world around them.
[127][131] Cairns et al. found in their virtual ethnography that students rely on online technologies to stay connected for school and social engagement activities.
[127] Students use a wide variety of technologies including ones for education, entertainment, daily tasks, and social networks and were either synchronous or asynchronous.
[133][123][67] People with these illnesses that place them at risk, have feelings of frustration with the medical and political systems, despair, and grief that are shared within the online health communities.
[133] Online health communities allow for those with heightened fears of infection or reinfection to have the ability to discuss adaptation challenges and strategies to avoid COVID 19.
[133][67] Online communities offer people with health conditions ways to support each other, learn preventative measures to avoid COVID 19 infections and reinfections, and find shared interests and symptoms.
[126] Congregation members became more active in the faith rituals and preparations than before the pandemic began and the use of social media became an important facilitator of connection.
