Social Media & Virtual Communities Introduction

Social media sites are becoming similar to virtual communities in the present day. According to Urban Dictionary.com, Social Media is defined as "participatory online media that utilizes the group to write and direct content, rather than a read-only media. Allows for direct contact between participants." This would include sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, and others. Virtual communities on the other hand is defined as "A virtual community uses Internet technology to share information, ideas and resources among a group of like-minded participants located anywhere in the world," according to TelecomsAdvice.org. This would consider programs like Second Life and IMVU chat program as virtual communities. How can social sites and virtual communities be similar?

These close similarities have changed how we communicate with each other from day to day. We now use texting, emails, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Second Life, and more to communicate with friends, family, colleagues, professors and classmates, employers, and complete strangers. How does this change our communication? We can talk to people over long distances for one cheap price, see them on our computer screens, learn in different venues, and more. This allows a broad spectrum of information sharing across the globe. With the freedom of the Internet and online world, information can flow freely and easily in a matter of seconds.

After interviewing a couple people of the pros and cons of using social media sites and virtual communities, a lot has been learned not only of the standpoints each interviewee made but also on the technical aspects to use these websites and programs. The interviewee’s also explained the differences and similarities of the programs as well as their ideas on what it means for our future of communicating with media sites and virtual communities.

Not only have people experienced the good and bad of the communities, but news articles can either bring people in or send them away. In some articles and blogs, people have expressed their opinions on what the article was about and on the programs and websites themselves. This has given people a venue to let their voice be heard across the vastness of the internet and to persuade people into believing their views are correct.