Living in Virtual Communities: Making Friends Online

摘要

Ten years ago social theorists were suggesting that the Internet would revolutionize social relationships. Turkle and Stone both wrote extensively about how the perceived anonymity provided by Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) would allow people to explore alternative aspects of their identity and of themselves like never before. Even Benedikt and Rheingold's early assessments of the revolutionary nature of the Internet led them to believe that it would bring about immense transformations in social life. However, my own research, an ethnography of a Virtual Community called Cybertown suggests that the changes have been much less dramatic than anticipated. Indeed, they are deeply embedded in the existing practices and power relations of everyday life. Markham suggested that users framed their experiences of CMC along a continuum of connection of self. Markham developed three themes along this continuum that helped her to understand online experiences. The first was that of CMC being a tool that facilitates communication, the second that cyberspace was a place to go to be with others, and the third was a way of being that is inseparably woven into lived experiences. It is this third category that is indicative of what Giddens referred to as a revolution in the way we form ties and connections, and that is also reflected in my own research.