Week 4 Part 1- Blanchard (A+B+E)

From McMillan and Chavis definition of communities, the characteristics which I would stress as important when defining a community is the idea that they must have ‘Feelings of membership: Feelings of belonging to, and identifying with, the community’ By having a collective of people whether it is IRL or online, who have an attachment to each other a community is formed. This community will then lead onto people being influenced by what other people are saying, which is also another characteristic of a community. However, online communities are sometimes chosen, like the virtual settlement ‘Julie, Julia’, these virtual settlements are not the same as communities IRL. IRL people are a community because they are brought together because of the street they live down etc, in this instance, people are consciously choosing whether they want to be part of this group. These community members are majority women of the age of 38. This does not reflect real life communities, where is streets you will find a variety of sexualities and ethnicities. However, because these people feel like they belong to this website and have probably built up relationships with other members, it does not necessarily mean that it can’t be a community in its own right. Just because the internet communities are an adaption of the communities IRL, some factors such as age and sex will differ, but the way it makes people feel will be similar. Facebook has made me feel like a part of an online community. You feel an attachment to your friends from school, when you are in groups to do with your year or form group, this attachment makes you feel like you ‘belong’ and gives reassurance to you that you have people surrounding you.