Virtual Community Psychology

     It is the figment of no ones imagination, today a vast longing for connectedness is awakening within the general consciousness of humanity. We are seeing this especially on the net, but alas, it seems more a hope than a reality. The simple fact that the word community is used so much in connection with the internet is a direct reflection of an almost mania in people to come together and combine and share along lives of common interest. We see what is called the mad gold rush happening in digital spaces for rapid development of virtual communities. This is due in large part to a global hunger for community that had followed the disintegration of traditional communities.

     The need for community, for togetherness, union, oneness and social love, tenderness, understanding and intimacy are all real. In modern individualistic and separate society most of these basic human drives are frustrated as people find themselves ever more distant for each other. Along comes a new evolutionary instrument of communication and presto we see these needs being released like a water from behind a dam.

     Within digitally generated cyber space there is a vast potential source of energy; a great potential for deeper and more open channels of communication. The internet is without doubt the most powerful tool and medium for communication and the creation of shared spaces and a potential for social, political and economic action. More obscure is finding its potential as an actual instrument for human evolution.

     Without doubt the reason the word community is so used on the internet today is a result of a longing for more interaction in a world that is increasingly more separate, cold, distant and hostile. But just because we now have an incredibly open and versatile tool of communication with which to create community spaces it does not necessarily follow that we know how to use this instrument to do so.

     We have already seen the internet fulfilling at least one sense of what community means. In Webster's dictionary we see community defined as people with common interests. On the net we see most organizational efforts following along the lines of common interests and the more tightly restricted that interest the more likely you will find the release of finding others with the same interest to get along with as long as you do not go to far off topic with them.

    Though the internet seems essentially a sterile environment it is made warm by humans communicating with each other. If we filter out the hotness of hostility and judgment there is a warmness of humans trying to find their way into positive dynamics with each other.

     Since communication is the essence seed of all community and since the internet is the most rapidly growing medium of communication in history, we are seeing a convergence of forces whose result few have been able to foresee. Without doubt it is finally becoming obvious that communication is the key to all human interactive dynamics and that the quality of communication and the level of mutual understanding and trust is one and the same. Finally we are seeing people beginning to pay attention to the issues of pure communication and its importance in every aspect and phase of life. On the internet quality communication is mission critical. The building of authentic communication that can endure the waves of constant change will depend on new and deeper models of what communication is and means in human social and digital realities.