Online communities are become more and more popular. We can be anything we want, do anything we want to and meet anybody that we do not even know. Rheingold would define virtual communities as “social aggregations that emerge from the [internet] when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationship in cyberspace”. I will describe virtual/ online communities as a place in [internet] where people with the same interest gather and share information and has a possibility to form a more personal relationship wit one another. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995)
Online communities such as twitter, skype or imvu have become some of the most popular site to form a community. So, what is online community actually is? According to Fernback & Thompson (1995), communication is the structural process that associated with community.
Well, in twitter or other online communities, people tend to share things that they won’t share in real life. They can have different personality but in the same body. So, what make people want to do so? Why they are not doing so in real life? Well, it’s to escape the problems and the issues of the real world. (Barlow, et al. 1995, p 43).
I do agree about it. I, myself, am engaging in so-called ‘second life’ at IMVU. IMVU is a graphical instant messaging client (3D chat) currently in beta stage with more than 3 million users. [1] It is developed by IMVU, Inc., by Will Harvey, a video game developer and founder of There, a similar 3D virtual world (IMVU, 2007).
In IMVU, you can choose your own avatar. They give you a choice of what kind of skin color you want, the shape of your hair, your eye and every other thing. Before you start the game, you will be given a tutorial of how using you avatar. Like you can see it’s a one minute tutorial where they teach you how to change your mood (you can even have a flirty mood!!), expression (imagine that your avatar are doing a puke expression :P) or even moves (like breakdance).
After the tutorial you can have a chance to chat with your friend or totally a stranger. You can have a chance to meet someone new just by clicking the ‘chat now’ button. As you can see below, I am meeting a total stranger and we are chatting in the room like starbucks.
As for me, I prefer to chat in IMVU rather than twitter. In IMVU, you can meet new friend from other part of the world (above is from Florida, but he is from Puerto Rican: so cool!!). I even learn other language too. Besides that, I have a body that represents me in the cyberspace. It likes you having a real chat. I am more and more addicted to it as I can be whatever I like; say anything I want without having a pressure from anybody in my real life to be someone that society wants you to be.
Conclusion
Second life gives you a chance to taste a different you!
References
Barlow, John Perry, Sven Birkets, Kevin Kelly and Mark Slouka. 1995. "What are we Doing On-Line." Harper's, August, pp. 35-46.
Fernback, J. & Thompson, B. (1995). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry or Failure? Retrieved on March 15, 2007 from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html
IMVU. (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMVU
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