Communities of Interest

Well, why do people hang out online? The answer really depends on the individual. As the reading mentioned most of us hang around online for information and friendship/companionship.

As for me, the reason why I hang around online is that my family and most of my friends from the Maldives & the rest of the world are online as well, and that gives me a feeling of connectedness with no regard to geographical location.

I haven't participated in a community of interest with the intention of getting information but as part of last year's unit, i have been on a yahoo group as well as on a dancer's community. I lost interest in that community as soon as my assignment was done!...

However, last year I discovered the wonders of blogging! and i actually initiated and created a blog for my team mates (as part of another assignment for this year, not for this unit though) where we are doing a project for the semester. I found that the blog turn out to be a place where we all comeback to at the end of the day to read each others thoughts as well as bring ourselves up to date on the progress of our project.

This would also be like the previous communities, our team would be dismantled when the project is over and all of us would go our own ways and loose interest as soon as the deed is done.

Therefore, just like Ida, i am leveling with Baker & Ward’s (2002) conclusion that states “unless that interest affect our daily lives… there is no good reason to believe that we will long continue an active membership in the virtual community” (p.221).