Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

I have decided to follow "Facebook" (www.facebookcom)as my online community.

Facbook is an online community that allows people from all over the world to communicate and share their lives in the form emails, commenting each other, photos or videos. It is free and easy to join and has millions of users worldwide.

Some of the services provided by this website are advertisements, online chat, discussion boards, emails and quizzes.

Members can interact my uploading videos/photos, make comments to other members, emailing each other, joining or “liking” different groups, playing games or doing quizes. The more they choose to interact the more interactive it becomes, however it has huge potential to be largely interactive. It is run my it is run members

Facebook is a form of communication between people who know each other in real life via the internet. Although you may meet new people on Facebook, the majority of people use it to keep in contact with those they are familiar with. Individuals who facilitate use Facebook use it as a way of communicating with friends and family all around the world. It is free to become a member and very convenient to use if you have access to a computer and internet. An extract from my own Facebook page is as follows: “Board waxed and edged, bindings changed and new boots molded to my feet!! Bring on Tuesday♥.” This is an example of a friend sharing her thoughts and what she is doing and feeling at the present time to her friends who are also members of Facebook.

Facebook has the potential to have many ethical issues as all most everyone has access to everyone’s profiles, one way or another.

Privacy and bullying are huge concerns. When you become a member of the online community, individuals have to agree to the terms and conditions, however there is nothing physically stopping anyone from posting offensive or insulting comments to their own or someone else’s page. In addition to this, once something is posted onto Facebook it becomes difficult to remove it entirely.

Within this community there is also a lack of identity of some of the users. It is very easy to accept new friends who you may not know, posing a potential risk that they will be able to know what you are doing, where you are and other personal details about you to a stranger. I think it is up to the individual to ensure you do not post any information onto this community that you do not want to get in the hands of the wrong people and to just be aware who the people are you are communicating with.

A benefit of using this online community over a physical community is that there are not geographical restrictions of who you can communicate with. You can be anywhere in the world (providing you have access to the internet) and still keep in touch with your friends and family. Another benefit of online communities would be for those who are unable to leave the house, for example the severely disabled, can use this community as a way of staying in touch with people and not being isolated due to being home bound.

One disadvantage of communicating via Facebook, rather than in a face-to-face situation, is the restrictions with physically meeting people. Facebook is a good way of supplementing your communications but would not be best as a primary form of communication with other people.