Tonight I read Rheingold's "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community" and Turner's "Where the counterculture met the new economy". Both described how virtual communities thrive and how they are easily adapted into people's everyday lives. In virtual communities, it is not uncommon to never see a 'friend' in person. One can share interests, have discussions, and bond with people online they've never met or seen. The lack of face to face communication does not stop people from socializing and connecting with each other emotionally. Which to me sounds.. a little creepy. Bonding with stranger, that you might not even know their gender or age?? Maybe I was creeped out because I take much precaution with online communities, such as Facebook. I am one of those people that will not accept a friend request unless I have actually met the person in real life and have had significant interaction with them.
However, this got me thinking about another 'virtual community' of which I consider myself a member. The "Nerdfighting" community, which was started up by two brothers' YouTube Channel. The Vlogbrothers channel is made up of Hank and John Green posting videos back and forth about life, work, books, news, basically anything and everything. These brothers have a large following of viewers who wait for new videos to be posted every week. I found myself realizing that I would be perfectly comfortable with accepting a friend request from either of the brothers, yet I have never actually met them or talked to them! Which conflicts with my rule of don't-add-unless-met-in-real-life. Maybe I feel this way because the videos not only show the brothers' opinions and interests, but also their body language, their facial expressions, their sarcasm, and their compassion.
Check out these links!
http://dftbanews.tumblr.com/post/28567044130/dftba-sports-olympic-nerd-fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_N7MAr98CI&list=UUGaVdbSav8xWuFWTadK6loA&index=6&feature=plcp
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