“Words on a screen are quite capable of…creating a community from a collection of strangers”
(Rheingold, 1993)
Millions of people now engage in the computer medited social groups know as virtual communities. Many of these virtual groups give constant snap shots of peoples everyday lives in the form of things like tweets, status updates on facebook or myspace or blogs. Alongside belonging to a physical community people increasingly belong to a growing number of virtual communities, whether this be for social or personal purposes. Wellman and Gulia (1999) put across the argument that online communities are damaging real life communities by encouraging a withdrawal from “real life”. On the other hand it is also believed that cyberspace re-enchants community. There are virtual communities that can be used to support either of these arguments. For example second life may appear to be a medium for people to escape their real lives and become another person who they are perhaps unable to portray in their own lives. To support the other side of the argument, the social community “Bankeyfields” I am looking at has been set up to support the local community and as a means of bringing the community further together.