My word: community
Web words, Words words words
What does community mean to you? Chances are it’s not (or not just) about your street, neighbourhood or town. As a blogger, I’m pleased to be part of a much bigger community.
My Twitter community
Where do you consider your community to be? These days it is far less likely to be the traditional idea of the street, neighbourhood or town that you live in. Instead, your virtual community could comprise tens, hundreds or even thousands of people from all over the world.
This certainly describes my world since I started blogging about my experiences as a cancer patient. I get up, log on, and immerse myself in my virtual community. And it seems I’m not alone. Last week Facebook announced it had registered its 500 millionth member.
That means one in 13 people on the planet are using the social networking site to build their own virtual community. Of course, that doesn’t even start to take into account the number of people using Twitter, MySpace, Bebo or any of the many hundreds of thousands of blogs, forums and chat rooms all over the internet.
Are these communities more important than the traditional community just outside my door? They certainly offer at least every bit as much: you can chat, argue, share and even date in your online world. Virtual communities can also generate ideas, disseminate information, influence and stimulate, often far more effectively than real-world networks.
My online world will always be my true community, the one made up only of people I want to communicate with. Having said that, I’m still going to make an effort with the neighbours so I can borrow the odd cup of sugar.
Emily is also the newest addition to the Polon team. Hello Em.