I tend to scoff at the notion of online “communities.” Primarily, I guess, because the notion is barely understood and yet highly referenced.
On YouTube, especially, it is used as justification for all manner of things. For banning divisive users, for defending the rights of other users. It has become a kind of lunacy – and yet such an emotionally charged term that few are inclined to take a moment to question or make comment. It is being exploited, as a cultural myth, in the same ways that religious extremists exploit religious texts. In the same way Australian television presenter Darren Hinch used to label anyone outside of the general mainstream of that country as being “totally un-Australian.”
Cultural myths are difficult things at the best of time. I personally struggle to honour the memory of lives lost in war while attempting to reconcile a more pervasive belief that “war is bad.” I remember standing at the Memorial at Mascot Memorial Park, looking down upon the reefs recently placed there. There were many from local businesses, but one really stood out to me. It wasn’t a business name, it was an individual. I wondered what their personal link to the war might be. Who they may have lost. Still, I digress…
In a very literal sense the audience participation at that website (and others) makes it a community. My concern I guess is that the “community” is massed together as one dominant voice. It is assumed that the individuals invoking the power of “the community” know its opinions. The true beauty of the community is that is a combination of individuals, backgrounds and opinions. It bothers me that those who claim to represent it do not appreciate this finer point.
As I was logging on to LiveJournal (where this article first appeared) I was intrigued to realise I had no great impulse to become of the general “LiveJournal community.” I wondered why. The truth, of course, is that I have my own community on that particular website. A very small circle of friends who are privy to some of my most intimate thoughts. We have each other and that, for me at least, is enough.
