I Heart Online Communities
I was thinking about the importance of community. Humans seem to be social animals. Even introverts like me can’t usually function happily without other human interactions.
One of the things that I love about the internet is the ability it has given me to make connections. There are of course, the physical connections, the wires from my hotel room on a business trip, and the magic box that I keep at home that connects me through the air.
Then there are the great people that you can meet - mostly on the web. Forums and blogs provide the opportunity for me to connect with like-minded people all the time. Being “that sort” of person, it gives me the opportunity to connect with people who aren’t like-minded as well. Good discussion is valuable.
When a group of people gather together regularly, they seem to form a community pretty spontaneously. You can get to know the personalities and characters. People drop in and out, but they all add value.
This happens to me all the time online. Every time someone comments on a blog I write, or one of the ever increasing list of blogs that I read, or posts in a forum, I learn a little more about them, and about me. It’s easy to start to care for people once you get to know them, and the online communities that I find make me feel warm and fuzzy.
There is an argument that spending too much time wired in to the net leaves you missing out on real life and, taken to extremes, there’s probably some truth in that. But it does miss the somewhat obvious point that everyone you encounter online is also a real person offline. They may represent themselves differently, but they still exist in flesh and blood.
I’d like to thank everyone I’ve met online here at the religious atheist, and propose a toast, to the value of communities.
Image by D’Arcy Norman
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