How the internet is good for a community...

So I think I've decided to blog about how media technologies divide and bring together a community.

So to start off I thought I would show some examples of why it is very good for the community. The most obvious one would be the communication aspect of things. For example Facebook and MySpace. Without facebook and myspace people that I have been close to in my community that I grew up in I would have virtually no contact with them. I keeps me in contact with my old high school and how they are doing, and it keeps them in contact with me so they know how i am doing. The community I grew up in however was very unique though. It was a small town, everyone knew everyone and it was a very family oriented place. So it is extremely beneficial for that community to keep in contact with its members no matter how far they are away. In a small community like that it is good to show the people that are living there now how successful its residents can be. The attached charts show really why people use social networking. And it is mostly for keeping in contact with people they already know. Just like how I like to use it.

"The Internet facilitates one-to-one, one-to-many and many- to-many communication and enables users to communicate easily and inexpensively with a wide variety of individuals across the globe.

Communication goes beyond the dissemination of information: it is a two-way

process that allows for the expression of viewpoints, the creation of intimacy,

and the coordination of actions. Because communication is so important to

individuals, the Internet's enhancement of the power to communicate can be

considered a great benefit. " That is in Breys article about the pro's and con's of the internet. I think that frames very well how it is important to people to have the two way communication with other people. And in a community like the one i am from it can enrich the isolated communities and keep everyone together. I'm friends with a majority of people from my graduating high school class and even some of the towns parents. It really keeps that sense of home town normalcy in my life, I believe it will do the same for everyone else.

Humans are social creatures by default. Rarely can a person go without talking with someone for an extended period of time. Social networking as a whole give people that outlet. It gives people that feel like they dont belong in certain places an outlet to find peace and happyness. They are going to be some extreme cases of things going wrong but that is always the case. Social networking is a technology that I would say is here to stay. It just is starting to evolve to different levels. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.