This week is all about social media - social networks and social communities. Until I read Dr. Howard's book (which is what I will focus on for this post to spare everyone my erratic thought process in jumping from book to book) I was with Buss and Strauss and their definition of online communities. I had no idea there was more to the story.
I have been playing WoW for two or three years now. Starting to play was not my idea and I was forced against my own volition to play. I thought, "Now why do I need to waste my time with some silly game!?" Once I started playing, though, I started making "friends" and I was invited to do things within the game with them. Soon people were counting on me to be in the game at a certain time and I was relying on them to be there too. We had agreed to meet and work toward a common goal. To make a long story short, after playing for just a few years, I have to admit that there is one player I communicate with outside of WoW who knows my real name and what I look like. She and I are "friends" on facebook and she and I text and call each other every once in a while when we haven't been able to catch each other on WoW.
I tell you this story because, 1) I am amazed to find out that people research this and 2) I think this is more evidence of Dr. Howard's point that the connections in online communities versus online networks is much stronger. As Dr. Howard puts it, "in communities, however, the secondary connections are far stronger. Communities aren't just a collection of individuals; instead, members have made a commitment to achieve the shared passions and goals of the group" (16). I think this can also be said of our small network of blogs here. We are not the "normal" bloggers out there writing, hoping (or sometimes not hoping, just writing for the sake of writing) someone will "follow" us because they find us interesting, funny, witty, or whatever they are looking for. Our small network of blogs is a community because we are here to 1) share ideas, 2) cooperate in the learning process and help each other grow from our readings and our [now] shared experiences, and 3) because our collective action (our syllabus) mandates that this is the appropriate outlet for such discussion.
Let me further explain; as Dr. Howard explains in his section on sharing, "it requires the least amount of organizational complexity" (17). Thus, by posting our thoughts, we are sharing with each. It is quite a simple task. It is not a far leap for me to make that claim. The second "rung" in Shirkey's proverbial ladder (I know, I said I'd focus on Dr. Howard's book for this post to save you from mental red-rover with the two readings, but at this point they are both discussing similar ideas, so it is hard no to red-rover...however, I will keep pages numbers and quotations limited to Dr. Howard's book to avoid confusion) is cooperation. Cooperation, according to Dr. Howard, is more complex and requires more effort than mere sharing (18-19). This concept essentially requires a dialogue of sorts. The dialogue for our blogs is simple. Once we've each posted our thoughts, we go around to everyone else's blog and read their thoughts and comments on them. Thus the conversation (and cooperation) continues. The third piece of this puzzle is the most complex of the three: collective action (19-20). This is the puzzle piece that goes on the very inside of the puzzle but you can't figure out where until you pull out the directions. The puzzle directions in this case refer to our class syllabus where our policies and agreements are stated. This lets us know where and when to respond to our readings (on our blogs, by Monday night).
That being said, I think I've made it clear that I see online communities as special places for collaboration. I focused on this small section of Dr. Howard's book because it was the most resonant for me; as much as I love computers and social media, I have no intention of attempting to create a social network or social community any time in the near (or far) future so, although chapter three was interesting, it was not something I could relate to on a personal note whereas I have experience with the information in chapter two (who doesn't, in this day and age?) and thus wanted to write about that. After all, this blog is about how we apply these readings to our lives (and vice versa), right?
By the way, I hope that I have not overstepped my bounds by applying the proverbial ladder analogy to our small group of blogs...
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a good point about being involved in WoW that I'm not sure has been addressed in our readings as thoroughly. You said you were basically forced to play WoW and that you thought it was a silly game until you began to play and then realized you enjoyed it. Therefore, to be a member of an online community, you are usually brought in from an outside force (i.e. your love of gaming, your friend's encouragement or your class's requirements). Usually, there is something beyond your own personal desire that pushes you to join. Even if you're joining the Adobe community, as Dr. Howard wrote about in his book, it is your interest in the product that pushes you to join.
In a social network, however, it is your own individual need or want to join. With Facebook, I had no ultimate goal when joining it. It wasn't my love of chocolate chip cookies or my passion for scuba diving that drove me to do it. Instead, joining the network was a result more of indirect peer pressure (do I sound like an after-school special now?). All my friends were joining, and I wanted to be a part of what they were talking about.
Jessica and Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteYou both make interesting connections and to follow up with Lindsay's point about Facebook, I have to wonder what keeps us (those who join from peer pressure) on Facebook. I too have a Facebook account and check it only when I get an email stating so and so has posted something on my wall. I do not feel a connection to Facebook - in fact, in all honesty, I despise Facebook and see it as a necessary evil. Many of my peers use Facebook to communicate and if I choose to cancel my Facebook account (I ponder this weekly) I will be in a sense isolating myself from my current community. My peers use Facebook to collaborate and in some cases move towards a collaborative action - some of which I have participated and would not have known about if it were not for Facebook. But, I still resent being a part of a community that encourages group posts rather than personal contact.
I started on Facebook because one of the librarians did a presentation on it and most of us started an account at that time. I stayed there because my 20th high school reunion followed soon after and suddenly my whole class was there. I've used it to find a dinner partner when traveling for workshops and to view baby pictures that I wouldn't otherwise see because the mom doesn't put them anywhere else. Sometimes it actually feels like a community. Or at least, like a means to a community.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I knew almost nothing about WoW before Design to Thrive and Jessica's post. My nephew plays and I used to supervise a young man who lived and breathed WoW. I never understood the attraction, but I thought of it as just another action game. That there is a whole community aspect to the game really came as a surprise. It also comes as something of a relief - all of those people who are glued to their computers are actually maintaining some semblance of human contact after all. They may be a bit fantastical with their contacts, but at least they are not completely isolated.
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ReplyDeleteJessica.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about social networks vs. online communities. As I posted in my blog, I am not on facebook or myspace. However, I have participated enthusiastically in wikis and similar online "sites" that exist for a specific purpose or focus on a single topic. I ask myself why I would see the value in one and shun the other. I used this quote in my blog posting but I think Betty White summed up my feelings about it when she categorized Facebook as "a huge waste of time." I think I had/have developed a paradigm that spending 2 hours on facebook is the near equivalent of spending 2 hours eating donuts and watching spongebob. I think perhaps I need to try to expand my "terministic screen" just a little bit.
Online communities, however, seem to me to really offer benefits to their participants. Being able to meet with, contribute to, and learn from a community of people with a similar goal or interest would certainly be beneficial to all involved. As you pointed out, Dr. H says the secondary connections are bound to be much stronger with online communities. However, the fact that Facebook has groups within its structure seem to give this social media outlet the ability to have online communities within its structure. This fact certainly makes me want to re-evaluate my feelings about it.
I agree with you that online communities are "special places for collaboration" and I think that the expansion of knowledge and the entire marketplace of ideas is experiencing and will experience growth at exponential levels because of it.