Communities and networks

[Lark]

I have been reading about this lately and wondered what anyone elses ideas or thinking about it where, the societies that we all live in presently are characterised as being networks as opposed to communities, community is organic and satisfactory but with a higher level of reciprocity than exists in networks, while networks are formal and reflective of a shared topic, interest or identity.

Do you think, given that definition, that you belong to more communities or more networks? Do you belong to either? Do they belong to you? Is the definition itself valid?

 

[j654dgj7]

Interesting thought.

I agree with your assessment of community as being more organic and satisfactory. Local communities were the way that human beings lived up until the last hundred years or so when we started isolating ourselves more and more into our own homes and heads. Ultimately the word "network" alludes to the internet right away in my mind. I grew up in front of a computer screen, and I just recently started thinking about the ramifications of what I have put myself through. Instead of being around other people as much as I had ought to, I sat alone in front of my screen and wrote on my keyboard. I believe that it has messed up my social skills, and that it is the main reason that I don't feel comfortable around other people. We weren't meant to spend as much time alone, in front of beams of light. It's just not how nature made us. We were supposed to run around and learn from each other by just being humans. Now we're more lonely and sad than ever...

Some day I want to belong to a community. For now, I'm stuck in a "network" setting. Sadly.

 

[Keirouen]

Community is better on every level. Online and offline. Reciprocation makes for a healthy psyche. Our minds and bodies crave feedback from each other. With community there's more levels of interaction. Both the potential of reciprocation and the minimal amount of it is high. It's very human. It's the closest to feeling constantly contented or even happy you can get

Networks are psychologically unfulfilling. Their nature is very one way directed towards the object of interest. This is unhealthy. It's a cycle of giving without receiving. More insidiously it's a cycle of giving much but receiving a pale shadow of diagonal cross-sectional feedback. It's like short term memory. It's a spiral of suffering that is only possible because of the backbone of community. If there were only networks (by definition used in op) depression and suicide rates would surge to a new high.

We need community. Our self-esteem has a genuine foundation in community. In networks our self-esteem is a paper-thin house of cards.

I think I might have an idea which is better... Though networks are alluring and require a shallower personal investment

 

[Dave Fallon]

I think I agree with most of the posts that a community is better. To the question of what I feel I belong to, I guess both, actually. Even online, I feel there is a sense of community with some, network with others. For some people, they can only belong to a network, whether it is because computers and the Internet have damaged their social skills or they simply cannot work with the disorganization of a community.

I agree with Keirouen that if there were only networks, we would see a surge in depression and suicide. We're more than just "social creatures", our society is a deep part of us, and without it we are lost.