Critically evaluate this statement: virtual communities allow forms of identity
and social relations that are unconstrained by our bodies, time and space.
Internet gives a chance to an individual to use virtual identities and portray themselves any
which way they want to as compared to the real life scenario where in an individual is stuck with
the image and the personality. So it is comparatively very simple in a virtual world to create an
identity that an individual aspires to be and take the personality traits that he doesn’t possess in
real life. Also internet provides an opportunity to people of different culture, nationality and
economic strata to stay in touch with each other (Rheingold,1999). This would never have been
possible in case of a real life scenario. This gives rise to a new breed of relations to develop on
the internet which is very different from real world happenings. People having the same taste or
community can share their experiences and knowledge irrespective of where they are located in
the world at a real time basis. This facet of internet wherein it breaks down the concept of time
related event is very unique and has been a defining factor in many historical events of the world
(Shafi, 2005).
These relationships based on the concept of time and space can be explained very well if take the
different perspectives individually and analyze each one of them. We also take into consideration
the affect that the Internet has on the lifestyle of the people especially the way people have
changed their trends related to listening to and downloading music. Since these days the music
reaches the people even before the music label is launched officially. We can also check as to
how these perspectives make an effect on the broader notions of individual identity and
community in relation to the internet effects (Slater, 2002).
Time & Space
People are now expected to be online all the time regardless of what time it is. The instances of
people continuously clicking the refresh button on a Gmail or Facebook is very common. So
while the space available on the internet remains infinite and with no boundaries, however the
time remains still a finite factor. This along with the fact that an individual cannot just abandon
the real world and go to live on the internet only. So with the increasing amount of social
networking sites available, it is going to become even harder to reach people because of the finite
time factor (Harris, 2003). However with time and space there is also another factor of
perception that comes with the internet and networking. The brands have to maintain their digital
image so as to keep the customers happy. Hence any complaint received to a company on
internet has the tendency to spread faster and to a larger audience. The time taken for the
messages to flow on the internet is very minimal. So the company has to make sure that the
perception of the people is not affected and hence has to act with immediate effect. This would
not have happened if a postal letter of complaint had reached the company. The management
could then have taken its own sweet time to respond to it. Hence the concept of relativity applies
to the digital world also. So internet reduces the time to action that normally happens in a real
life scenario and at the same time provides a world of space for the individual to live in
(Hongladarom, 2002).
Online dating
Online dating can be a part of a much larger activity like broader social networking, gaming,
chatting etc. It allows people to put a mask on their real personalities and present them in a way
that is more desirable to the larger community. They can create a virtual world where in they can
take up avatars and roles that they would never be able to in real life. It allows people to be more
open about their thoughts and beliefs and express them clearly without any fear of getting hurt.
People are ready to fight for what they believe is true and stand for the right thing on the Internet
(Lockard, 1997). This is something that may never do when the same situation comes up in the
real world or in a face to face scenario. The private information provided by the users on these
sites is treated as a commodity. The company uses this information and database by selling it to
other marketing companies. These accesses are also sold to other members for money which can
be used for ulterior motives and can turn out to be a very dangerous thing as a result. Also there
is no guarantee of the people who are registered on these sites. These can be either serial daters
who have registered on multiple such dating sites to have fun or are people who have genuine
problems in their real life and are unable to find someone because of that (Hauben, 1999).
Moreover the entire purpose and the business model behind these online dating sites is that
people don’t get into a successful and a serious long term relationship. If the people, end up
doing so the traffic on these sites would continue to reduce and that may affect the advertising
revenues that these companies are earning. Hence there exists a conflict of interests for these
dating sites to give the best possible match to any user suiting to his profile (Hauben, 1999).
Music
The distribution of music was controlled by the record companies and the artists in case of
private records, but after the advent of the internet, there has been a trend of free distribution of
the music through piracy and other means. This has greatly affected the profitability of the music
companies and the independent artists who have been trying to gather public opinion against this
menace and remove it from the roots completely. Napster started it and then was closed down
after being implicated in some legal cases, but by that time their end had already caught on and
the piracy of music had become a worldwide phenomenon which was actually impossible to
control without the public support (Rheingold, 1999). Apple with its innovative iTunes has tried
to come up with a different model where in the users can easily download the songs from the
online iTunes music library and the artists would be paid a percentage of money for that as
royalty. Also it seems that the music industry is trying out innovative ways to reach the common
public by launching music on sites like YouTube directly without a label cover and interacting
with their fans directly on a personal level. This makes the entire user experience really awesome
and takes it to a different level altogether (Lockard, 1997).
Identity and Internet
The use of internet in general has broken the geographical and the cultural boundaries that
existed amongst people of the world and helped them to connect. The individuals can create their
online avatars that become their identity in the virtual world. They can portray themselves the
way they want to in such an environment and become somebody that they always aspire to be.
They can portray themselves to be very good looking and confident in their online profile while
it’s possible that they are very shy and introvert in real life (Rheingold, 1999). So there is a case
for dual personalities that the individuals have started having because of the internet. This virtual
identity that they have created for themselves has begun to take over their real identities and
hence we are now seeing more and more cases of individuals not able to deal with this pressure
and hence giving way to depression and other such psychological ailments.
Community and Internet
Internet has been a spectacular boon to the society in general. The ease of mobility and
effectiveness that it has brought in the lives of people is incomparable to any other innovation in
the history of mankind. Communication has become faster, day to day activities like banking,
booking tickets; gaming etc. can all be done on the internet now (Baym, 1998). Children can
learn new things and share their knowledge with their friends on the internet. People can stay
connected as well as search about anything possible using the internet. However, there is still a
dark face of internet that is affecting the lives of the people in a very dangerous way. The ill
effects of pornography, hacking and piracy have been seen world over. People are facing severe
psychological and mental disorders because of these reasons. The grim effects of social
networking and the health disorders that the people face due to a lack of physical activity are
visible all over the globe (Butler, 1990).
References
Shafi, B. (2005). Can a Virtual Community be any different from the experience of a Real
Community? Incoherent Thoughts.
Slater, D. (2002). Social Relationships and Identity Online and Offline. In Leah A. Lievrouw,
Sonia M. Livingstone & Sonia M. Livingstone (Eds.), Handbook of New Media, pp. 533-546.
Harris, L. (2003). Time, space. In Theories of Media, University of Chicago
Hongladarom, S. (2002). 'The Web of Time and the Dilemma of Globalization', The Information
Society 18(4), pp. 241 – 249
Lockard, J. (1997). "Progressive politics, electronic individualism and the myth of the virtual
community', in David Porter, ed, Internet Culture, New York: Routledge.
Hauben, M. (1999). 'The Computer as a Democratizer', The Amateur Computerist, v.4 n.2-3.
[27] BBC Online, 'A Manifesto for local online communities'
Rheingold, H. (1999). 'Community Development In The Cybersociety of the Future', BBC
Online
Baym, N.K. (1998). The Emergence of Online Community' in Jones, S.G., ed., Cybersociety 2.0:
Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, California: Sage.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, London: Routledge.