Reality & Online & AI — OH MY!
Applications of well-functioning face-to-face communities to online community success.
Communities are a natural phenomenon critical to the human psyche and general well-being — and society is the outcome of relationships formed through communities and communication. Like any Earthly organism, we as humans cannot survive without interacting with our environment (Lee et al., 2011). But, in the past 10–15 years, social media and other emerging technology have changed the way people communicate. From text-to-speech devices for those who are non-speaking to online groups dedicated to a specific topic, human contact and communication are forever changed. The impacts of these changes reach far beyond just the way we communicate but the pace at which information is shared. In a lightning-fast world where we can find out anything known to man — the applications of face-to-face communities to online communities are endless.
Online or otherwise, there are three basic principles of any community, including:
- Building Personal Relationships and networks of trust
- Bring together people with common interests
- Engage these groups of people (i-Scoop, 2022)
An online community is no different from any other community except online. It is a group of people with something in common, which could include shared interests, experiences, ideas, goals, or profiles. Though, due to the lack of context or difficulty displaying emotions virtually, some studies show that internet communications don’t fully function the same as face-to-face communication as emotions elicit a sense of trust and more profound understanding (Lee et al., 2011)
However, this does not mean that genuine human connection cannot be found via internet communication. For example, mediated communities can be hyperpersonal because users can present only what they want (or don’t want) to share about themselves and communicate without interference from environmental reality (Lee et al., 2011). And while the day is yet to come, Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly facilitates human-to-human communication practices (Erensoy, 2021). So, I think it is a safe hypothesis to say this technology will someday apply to online communities and how they recruit members and convey their messages.
Generally, on and offline communities can be categorized into two segments, closed (face-to-face) or open (online) relative to the other. While face-to-face conversation and communication usually make way for shared understanding and knowledge exchange, it is singular. Only those present can participate in the discussion; online communities allow for continuous, documented, ever-evolving debate. In conclusion, communities call for a certain degree of trade-off and/or combination, whether online or off.
References
Erensoy, E. (2021, April 8). How AI is changing human communication. Chicago Policy Review. https://chicagopolicyreview.org/2021/04/07/how-ai-is-changing-human-communication/
i-SCOOP. (2022, May 10). Online communities and social communities: A primer. https://www.i-scoop.eu/online-communities-social-communities-primer/
Mitchell, E., Wolf, P., Kazi, A.S. (2005). Learning from each other: Online and face to face communities of practice.
Lee, Paul & Leung, Louis & Lo, Ven-Hwei & Xiong, Chengyu & Wu, Tingjun. (2011). Internet communication versus face-to-face interaction in quality of life. Social Indicators Research. 100. 375–389. 10.1007/s11205–010–9618–3.
