Latin Love

Latin Love

I was taken by surprise and intrigued when my teacher told me to join an online community and follow the postings and chats for my next English paper. That same class period I spent a lot of time looking around finding all sorts of sites and topics that could keep my interest. As I explored I was trying to figure out what an online community really was. I wasn’t sure if a site with just a discussion board was enough for this project, so I tried to find others with chat rooms. Finally I came across a subject that interested me and I felt met the requirements for an online community. It was a place where common interests link people to a community online.

In Howard Rheingold’s The Virtual Community an online community is stated as, “an online discussion group in which members develop long-term friendships through their interactions online. In such a community, members become intimate though they have never seen each other face to face.” Such a place is illustrated when Rheingold related the tick story in his book. It was late one night when he and his wife found a tick on their baby’s scalp. They were frightened and didn’t know what to do, so the Rheingold logged onto the WELL, an information site, to see if he could get an answer. Before his wife got a hold of the normal pediatrician, he had received an answer online. “Many people are alarmed by the very idea of a virtual community, fearing that it is another step in the wrong direction…” However, such a place for people to gather and help is needed, as demonstrated by the tick incident. An online community is a place where people can gather and share information they have learned throughout the years. It is a place of solace to many and a resource to others. “Who is to say that this preference for informal written text is somehow less authentically human than opting for audible speech” (Rheingold 94)?

Who is to say that written text is not as valid as spoken words? Before the time of the telephone, the only form of communication was written letters. The online community I chose tied both the written and the audible to the site. Music was the common interest in my online community.