It's safe to say that will the increased presence and viability of online social networks, we are well into the next phase of the internet; connectivity, a main component or THE main component of web 2.0. A few years ago, or maybe in the early 2000's, one of the biggest buzz words was 'community'. Maybe it was a a backlash of the 90's, or maybe it was a silent desire for a web 2.0 model, but it was present. Everyone became very 'community-oriented' from businesses to churches.
As I was thinking about this next turn of events, this newfound connectivity will most likely rearrange our previous thoughts of what community is. I cannot speak for sure, but I would venture to say that most people say their "myspace" friends would count as their community. I balked. That cannot be community. They probably never even see these people. In order to debunk this theory of true "online community" I took crazy measures... I looked up the definition. Don't be alarmed, I used dashboard, I didn't actually go OPEN a book, because then I couldn't have done this:
The first definition satisfied my thoughts. "Living in one place together".
Then I moved onto Number 2. A group of people having a religion, race, profession or characteristics in common. Shoot... Rather nebulous.
Number 3 shot my theory to hell. "A feeling of fellowship with others sharing common interests/goals".
Number 4 obliterated it, "a group of interdependent organisms together or found in the the same 'habitat' at the same time."
Community is or can be pretty much what we decide it is. Work, family, Church, University, online social networking, forums, people who all like Gouda cheese, pretty much whatever you want can be declared community. However the ONE thing that is consistent in all of these definitions is without a doubt, connectivity. Yes, they are all different types of connections, but they are present nonetheless.
We are moving into an age where connection is becoming easier to obtain, manipulate and/or dictate. I think this truly has serious implication for our "modern day" communities. While this prediction could have been made, and was, 20 years ago, I guess what I am saying is that it is happening right now. We are experiencing a new time period in which you have friends you've never met and your closest allies are on a different continent and all become you share common interests. You were able to find or connect with one another.
If you work in a high school, university, a church or you manage a business, think long and hard about this and the implications is has on your organization. And the rest of you, if you are breathing, this impacts you as well. This is important and it's not going anywhere.