The social network I am analyzing is made up of my high school class members. The social network perspective differs from others in that it examines what is exchanged, communicated, and shared by pairs of individuals, rather than the aggregate behavior for a group, community, or location. Three important elements in Etzioni and Etzioni’s definition of community (which Haythornthwaite adopts) are social network, common ground, and reciprocity.
Patterns of strong and weak ties are what make up a social network. One has strong ties with those actors in the network whom they contact frequently. Strong ties within the network tend to be dense, and those with strong ties are often similar and have access to the same resources. Within this community, I have several strong ties. These are my closest friends from high school, whom I talk to through IM or email on a daily basis. I also have the most in common with my strong ties. As Haythornthwaite describes, my strong ties do tend to be dense, as many of them also have strong ties with one another.
In contrast, a person has a weak tie with someone whom they rarely contact. Although I know all members of my high school class, I no longer engage with every person on a daily or even yearly basis. Weak ties allow us to connect to a more unique and varied composition of resources. My weak ties tend to be majoring in different subjects, live in different parts of the country, know different people, etc. They have access to different resources that may come in extremely handy when I am looking for a job sometime in the future.
Another important element of a community is common ground, which refers to the level of commitment and shared values, mores, meanings, and shared historical identity. For members of this community, our common ground is our shared set of experiences, symbols, inside jokes, etc., which we accumulated throughout our high school experience and beyond. For example, we all have inside jokes about several of our high school teachers. Although these jokes have meaning to all those in the community, an outsider would probably find them meaningless
A third element of Haythornthwaite’s analysis is reciprocity, which involves an exchange of resources and information between members of the community. Within our social network, we constantly are giving and receiving support during difficult and joyous times. Furthermore, we share information about our schools, majors, and friends. The reciprocal information creates social capital, which refers to the fact that the network possesses value above the benefits accruing to individual pairs in the network.
Haythornthwaite also discusses online-offline synergies in her analysis. Because we are all scattered in different parts of the country, we have resorted to email and IM to keep in touch. In addition, after graduation, a fellow classmate created a Facebook group called “Holton-Arms Class of 2005,” for us to keep in touch with one another throughout college. This group gives us an opportunity to exchange inside jokes, memories, updates, etc. The group’s wall allows members of the class to keep in-touch with one another, especially those that they no longer see face to face. According to Etzioni and Etzioni, “those communities that combine both face to face and CMC systems would be able to bond better and share values more effectively than communities that rely upon only one or the other mode of communication.” Furthermore, Haythornthwaite writes that online communities extend rather than replace face-to-face communications. I find this to be particularly true in my situation. If not for the Internet, the communication within the network would fade, as we have very few opportunities to interact on a face-to-face basis. Instead, the Internet asks as a supplement through which we communicate when we are not within close physical proximity.
This experience conforms to the utopic, or Gemeinschaft, view of community. Our community has strong interpersonal ties, a shared focus, and a common language and identity. The addition of the Internet to our community has not torn us apart, but instead has allowed us to connect and engage with one another more often.
ttp://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-7-option-1-my-community.html
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/10/7-strong-bonds-support-soldiers.html
2 comments:
First off I think you did a really great job of breaking down the class content and the material in the article to discuss and investigate your online community. I too found what Haythornthwaite wrote about how “online communities extend rather than replace face-to-face communications” to be very true. Like you the online group that your community used helped further the networking, reciprocity and common ground. In my particular situation the CMC was an intranet available to members of an office and it really particularly helped build a sense of common ground reciprocity.
First off, I love the idea of a network made up high school class members. This seems like such a great way to keep in touch with old friends and remember the good times in high school. I love how you connected this community with Haythornthwaite and what we've been studying in class. You explain well how the social network, common ground, and reciprocity applies perfectly to your community. This particular example also works perfectly because it proves that CMC can not only benefit a community, but be responsible for its continual existence and success.
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