Issue 4: CONVERSATION AND COLLABORATION, NOT JUST COMMENT?

Writer/journalist Stephanie Wood recently published a compelling feature article on loneliness. In addition to addressing  the deep seated experience of emotional and physical isolation, she  challenges the notion that social media can help to alleviate loneliness. See http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/all-the-lonely-people-20130826-2skkz.html.

It would appear, indeed, that  social media platforms can invite mere comment rather than engagement – or even just envy as we appraised others’ seemingly more enriched lives.  

We’ve all heard  about the potential of Facebook to cause loneliness. But a study intent on proving this actually found the opposite. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/30/facebook-loneliness_n_3839003.html

Aiza has commented on this blog that social media shows evidence of ‘the Existence of certain protocols and rules of use which can only be learned and internalised through constant exposure and use’.  

By virtue of this definition, we can envision proficient social media users as those who are true community members – they have adopted the language, use the protocols for engaging in dialogue, and are engaged in regular interchange.

And other commenters have shown how constant exposure and the next step- response – have enhanced feelings of belonging:

Sally Morgan: ‘social media can help us feel like we belong and decrease feelings of isolation’. 

Denise: 'the bottom line for me is that I see Facebook as a very positive medium and a fabulous vehicle to connect with other like-minded human beings and make friends.'

According to Spanish scholar Jose Luis Orihuela, in an article in Comunicação e Sociedade (translated into English!)

 ‘The blogosphere is community and conversation’.  

Please continue the conversation- let me know what you think about the question,

Can social media build community?

Want to know more from these commentators?

Denise: http://greyisok.blogspot.co.uk/

Jose Luis Orihuela: Email: jlori@unav.es; Blog: http://ecuaderno.com/.

Aiza Rus: http://vitamincplus.wordpress.com/author/aizauts/

Sally Morgan: https://plus.google.com/107611860416207398724/posts

ISSUE 3 ALTERNATIVE DISCOURSE? A NEW LANGUAGE COMMUNITY?

The comment from poet Shelley Tracey got me thinking:

can creative communities form through the medium of social media?
Accordingly, I interviewed Shelley via Facebook Chat.
Here is a transcript.

What do you think?
Can social media  create a new language, a new discourse, a new language community?

Using Social Media to Influence Customers with Michelle Levings - Networ...

Issue 2 - RESPOND, RELATE - AND MAKE THE CONNECTIONS REAL?

Dear bloggers, see Denise below
who  wants to share what she has learned.
community's first rule is this:
when contact's made, see it's returned!


Lani Paul in the video- and other speakers featured in this recent forum - reminds us of the key to engagement:   when media users respond, keep the community going by translating the art of dialogue to the digital.

It's important to talk to your community

Can social media build community?     

My blog addresses just this question. 

You’re invited— full impunity—to offer any sound suggestion. 

Issue 1: ATTENTION SEEKING OR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT?

As social media users, are we doomed to being serial narcissists – trying to turn our ordinary lives into a visual and verbal feast others can only envy?

Daily, our so-called friends on Facebook present their gourmet meals, concert tickets and glamour purchases for our attention. See Ian McManus’s discussion on the way Facebook nourishes this unhealthy way of life.

But the same articles highlight our deep need for belonging, and for integration into multiple communities.

Can social media deliver this? Can we use social media to create, join, and enhance online communities – and encourage others to become members?
With your help, this blog will attempt to answer these questions

Dear fellow students, here's a link 

Or two that help to make you think:

- the research behind it – why we want to belong: 

see

  and the need for community that propels people to join Facebook, as I recently posted in Ian's discussion:

see

Share your thoughts, and help build my community on building community!

POST 2
thanks for the encouragement as this blog begins. Continuing the theme of acknowledgement, I have been examining websites and blogs of support groups, to examine the way people's experiences can be validated via social media, giving them the sense that they are members of a community of fellow sufferers. Look, for example, at the comments in this blog on the experience of miscarriage. What does thier language tell us? what emotions are they expressing? Is there a common thread in the nature of their comments?
http://themiscarriageblog.blogspot.com.au/2009/02/other-type-of-two-week-wait.html