Tr759 Social Policy: Are Assignment Answers

Are virtual communities real?

Virtual communities are existent in the modern world. The virtual communities serve to be a communication tool that is used by the people to communicate with each other over the various electronic media available to them. The virtual communication leads to the aloofness of the physical element that should have been present in the concerned interaction. Virtual communication leads to the ease of interaction between two people who might be physically separated by the geographical condition that exists between them. The virtual communication reduces the time that is required by the participants of the communication to travel to the venue that they have selected for meeting. The virtual communication seems to have become an instant form of the communication and seems to connect the communicators who might physically exist in two different parts of the globe. Human beings are known to be social creatures and thus need to interact in the social circles in order to maintain their own sanity. The challenge presented in the above discussion refers to the fact as to whether the two people who are involved in the conversation can exist within a community without even meeting in person and only interacting through the electronic media.

A virtual community is composed of the people who bond over the factors like the similar beliefs, the locational characteristics that help them to develop a feeling of being heard and being accepted. This is valid for both the virtual and real modes of communication. It may be observed that the virtual communication may at times be responsible for the development of queries in the minds of the participants of the communication regarding the matters that are discussed in the communications. The real communication may avoid these complications as they might get cleared on the face. In the conditions of virtual communication, the participants have no other option but to rely on the words and the ideas that are communicated by the others who are involved in the communication. The virtual communication restricts the formation of an effective relationship between the communicators. The virtual communication relies majorly on whatever is communicated through the words that are typed or written by the participators of the communication. A real communication involves the use of various other qualities and does not rely on just the words of the communicator. The virtual communication displays in most cases an air of pride within the participants of the communicator. The participants may get clouded with a false sense of pride that they might develop within themselves. The real life communication might take cue from the body language of the communicator, the tonal changes during the communication process. The real life communication helps the creation of memories for the participants of the communication process. The physical presence leads to the strengthening of relationship that exists among the participants. The real community helps the participants to get involved in the social events that the virtual; communication process fails to achieve.