The embodied group I participate in transcends normal bonds and friendships. The bonds and trust we share with each other is practically beyond anything else I’ve experienced in life. Even though my community exists online, I believe my group meets all the criteria’s necessary to be considered a community.
Members constantly interact with other members, increasing everyone’s familiarity with one another. When members log onto World of Warcraft, they consistently choose to play and communicate with other community members because they feel safe interacting with each other. The reason members feel safe in confiding problems and struggles with other members is because our community upholds a high level of trust, an essential component to bond strength. Since practically all members maintain a positive and open environment, the community is able to increase its unity every day.
Another reason I believe my embodied group is a community is because it utilizes different modes of communication, permitting the group to grow into a community. As a virtual community, forming a tight-knit bond may be more difficult in comparison to a real-life community. Usually, people playing World of Warcraft are not capable of meeting with each other in real-life due to geographical differences, introducing issues that may inhibit players from forming strong bonds. However, our community utilizes several modes of communication, allowing my community to be even stronger. We are able to communicate via microphone, video chat, and chat room. Because we are unbounded by geography and have a complete set of tools for communication, we are able to recruit stronger and more dedicated members across the globe while maintaining the reassurance a real-life encounter would provide.
The large array of members spanning from continent to continent allows our community to be more diverse and accepting of others. This introduces the controversial issue over inclusivity and exclusivity. In my opinion, I believe a community should be inclusive dominant because it shows the community is open to a wider variety of people. Rather than be a strict, small group of people, I believe a community should have the strength to take a diverse set of people in, allowing for variety and slight difference of opinion within the community, rather than a homogeneous set of opinions and ideals. The purpose of allowing a slight difference of opinion is to avoid a conflict of radical interests, such as having a radical believer constantly preach to every member about how the path of their belief is the absolute right way.
Since members in my group maintain a high level of interaction, have exceedingly strong bonds, utilize various modes of communication, and are dominantly inclusive, I believe my embodied group is a community.
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