Claims about the emergence of a new type of social aggregation—“virtual community”—cover a type of ideological discourse about social interactions. The main cultural resource fueling this ideology is the counterculture and its social project. Virtual community, both as a discursive and as a social practice, is a culmination rather than a resolution of the modern conflict between community and individuality. Presenting virtual community as a panacea for modern social tensions, especially that between individualistic and communitarian ideals, hides from sight not only some of the negative aspects of on-line social life (cliquish behavior and incivility) but also the role played by communication technology in fragmenting modern society.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
HiltzS. R. and TuroffM., The Network Nation: Human Communication Via Computer, Addison-Wesley, Reading Massachusetts, 1978.
2.
KieslerS.SiegelJ. and McGuireT., Social Psychological Aspects of Computer Mediated Communication, American Psychologist, 39: 10, pp. 1123–1134, 1984.
3.
NegroponteN., Being Digital, Knopf, New York, 1995.
4.
RheingoldH., The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, HarperPerennial, New York, 1993.
5.
BermanJ. and WeitzerD. J., Technology and Democracy, Social Research, 64: 3, pp. 1313–1319, 1997.
6.
BramanS., The Autopoietic State: Communication and Democratic Potential in the Net, Journal of the American Society of Information Science, 45: 6, pp. 358–368, 1994.
7.
DoctorR. D., Information Technology and Social Equity: Confronting the Revolution, Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42: 3, pp. 216–228, 1991.
8.
DoctorR. D., Society Equity and Information Technologies: Moving toward Information Democracy, Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 27: 1, pp. 43–96, 1992.
9.
SmithM., Voices from the Well: The Logic of Virtual Commons, Master Thesis, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 1992.
10.
WatsonN., Why We Argue About Virtual Community: A Case Study of the Phish.Net Fan Community, in Virtual Culture, JonesS. G. (ed.), Sage, London /Thousand Oaks/New Delhi, pp. 102–132, 1997.
HornS., Cyberville: Clicks, Culture, and the Creation of an On-Line Town, Warner Books, New York, 1998.
15.
RushkofD., Cyberia, HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, 1994.
16.
SchulerD., New Community Networks: Wiredfor Change, Addison-Wesley, Reading Massachusetts, 1996.
17.
BaymN., The Emergence of On-Line Community, in Cybersociety 2.0, JonesS. (ed.), Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 35–68, 1998.
18.
McLaughlinM.OsborneK. K., and EllisonN., Virtual Community in a Telepresence Environment, in Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, JonesS. (ed.), Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 146–168, 1997.
19.
ParksM. R. and FloydK., Making Friends in Cyberspace, Journal of Communication, 46: 1, pp. 80–97, 1996.
20.
CalhounC., Community without Propinquity Revisited: Communications Technology and the Transformation of the Urban Public Sphere, Sociological Inquiry, 68: 3, pp. 373–397, 1998.
21.
Doheny-FarinaS., The Wired Neighborhood, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996.
22.
HamptonK. N. and WellmanB., Examining Community in the Digital Neighborhood. Early Results from Canada's Wired Suburb, in Digital Cities: Technologies, Experiences, and Future Perspectives, IshidaT. and IsbisterK. (eds.), Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany, pp. 194–208, 2000.
23.
HamptonK. N. and WellmanB., Netville On-Line and Off-Line. Observing and Surveying a Wired Suburb, American Behavioral Scientist, 43: 3, pp. 475–492, 1999.
24.
PutnamR. D., Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2000.
25.
RainieL. and KohutA., Tracking Online Life: How women Use the Internet to Cultivate Relationships with Family and Friends, Pew Internet and American Life, Washington, DC, 2000.
26.
WellmanB. and GuliaM., Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities, in Networks in the Global Village, WellmanB. (ed.), Westview Press, Boulder, pp. 331–367, 1999.
27.
JonesS., The Internet and Its Social Landscape, in Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, JonesS. (ed.), Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 7–35, 1997.
28.
CalhounC., Computer Technology, Large-Scale Social Integration, and the Local Community, Urban Affairs Quarterly, 22: 2, pp. 329–349, 1986.
29.
WellmanB., An Electronic Group Is Virtually a Social Network, in Culture of the Internet, KieslerS. (ed.), Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, pp. 179–205.
30.
WellmanB., Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networks, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25: 2, pp. 227–252, 2001.
31.
RoszakT., The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1995.
32.
RoszakT., The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1994.
33.
BerniceM., A Sociology of Contemporary Cultural Change, Saint Martin's Press, New York, 1981.
34.
VeyseyL. R., The Communal Experience: Anarchist and Mystical Communities in Twentieth-Century America, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978.
35.
FreibergerP. and SwaineM., Fire in the Valley: The Inside Story of Silicon Valley's Computer Pioneers—From Kitchen-Table Startups to Multibillion-Dollar Empires, IDG Books Worldwide, Foster City, 1999.
36.
LevyS., Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Dell, New York, 1985.
37.
NorrisP., Digital Divide? Civic Engagement, Information Poverty & the Internet in Democratic Societies, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2001.
38.
BellahR. N.MadsenR.SullivanW.SwindlerA., and TiptonS. M., Habits of the Heart. Individualism and Commitment in American Life, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1985/1996.
39.
GeertzC., The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected Essays, Basic Books, New York, 1973.
40.
WeberM., They Theory of Social and Economic Organization, Oxford University Press, New York, 1947.
EricksonT., Social Interaction on the Net: Virtual Community as Participatory Genre, 30th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 6, pp. 13–21, 1997.
55.
HarasimL., Networks: Networking as Social Space, in Global Networks, HarasimL. (ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 15–34, 1993.
56.
LacyD., From Grunts to Gigabytes, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1996.
57.
PosterM., Cyberdemocracy: Internet and the Public Sphere, in Internet Culture, PorterD. (ed.), Routledge, New York/London, pp. 201–218.
58.
TurkleS., Life on the Screen. Identity in the Age of the Internet, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1995.
59.
HiltzS. R., Online Communities: A Case Study of the Office of the Future, Ablex, Norwood, New Jersey, 1984.
60.
TuroffM., Human Communication Via Data Networks, in Computer Networking, BlancR. and CottonI. (eds.), IEEE Press, pp. 241–245, 1973.
61.
KieslerS. and SproullL., Group Decision Making and Communication Technology, Organizational Behavior And Human Decision Processes, 52, pp. 96–123, 1992.
62.
MyersD., “Anonymity Is Part of the Magic”: Individual Manipulation of Computer-Medicated Communication Contexts, Qualitative Sociology, 19: 3, pp. 251–266, 1987.
FelsensteinL., Convivial Cybernetic Devices: From Vacuum Tube Flip-Flops to the Singing Altair. An Interview with Lee Felsenstein, The Analytical Engine, 3: 1, 1995. On-line: http://opencollector.org/history/homebrew/engv3nl.html, Accessed: February 28, 2005.
KristolI., Neoconservatism. The Autobiography of an Idea, The Free Press, New York, 1995.
77.
LaschC., The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations, Norton, New York, 1991.
78.
RothmanS., The Media and Identity and Personality, International Journal on World Peace, 14: 4, pp. 49–80, 1997.
79.
YablonskyL., The Hippie Trip, Pegasus, New York, 1968.
80.
YankelovichD., Searching for Self-Fulfillment in a World Turned Upside Down, Psychology Today, 15: 4, pp. 5–91, 1981.
81.
HabermasJ., The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1989.
82.
BenedictR., Patterns of Culture, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1934.
83.
PopperK. R., The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Harper and Row, New York, 1968.
84.
SeabrookJ., Deeper: My Two Year Odyssey in Cyber Space, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997.
85.
DurkheimE., The Division of Labor in Society, The Free Press, New York, 1984.
86.
GiddensA., Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1991.
87.
SimmelG., The Sociology of Georg Simmel, Free Press, New York, 1964.
88.
TonniesF., Gemeinschaft Und Gesellschaft. Community and Society, Harper and Row, New York, 1964.
89.
de TocquevilleA., Democracy in America, Vintage Books, New York, 1840/1958.
90.
FernbackJ., The Individual within the Collective: Virtual Ideology and the Realization of Collective Principles, in Virtual Culture, JonesS. (ed.), Sage, Thousand Oaks, pp. 36–54, 1997.
91.
RiesmanD., The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1965.
92.
SennettR., The Fall of Public Man, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977.
93.
AllportG. W., Personality: A Psychological Interpretation, H. Holt, New York, 1951.
94.
MeadG. H., Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1934.
95.
LievrouwL., New Media and the “Pluralization of Life-Worlds”: A Role for Information in Social Differentiation, New Media and Society, 3: 1, pp. 5–26, 2001.
96.
FoucaultM., Of Other Spaces, Diacritics, 16: 1, pp. 22–27, 1986.
97.
WeberM., The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Routledge, London and New York, 1992/1904-1905.
98.
BellD., The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Basic Books, New York, 1996.
99.
WuthnowR., Sharing the Journal: Support Groups and America's New Quest for Community, Free Press, New York, Toronto, 1994.
100.
BellahR. N.MadsenR.SullivanW.SwidlerA., and TiptonS. M., Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1996.
