I do confess that I found the readings quite hard going this week. Not because the subject matter they contained was difficult, but because there was a lot of content to get through. Virtual communities are an interesting concept. People can join a social network and exchange social capital without ever meeting those they are associating with. I think its interesting that anyone can join one of these communites and engage with people who share similiar interests. Its astounding to think about just how big these communities could get. However, they are self limiting, as Erika said in class people can only maintain a certain number of relationships before they just cannot spread their social capital any further. I think that virtual communities will become very important in the future as more and more people spend greater amounts of time in front of computers.
The idea that we can create a different identity online is an enticing concept. I like the idea that I can take on a new persona, but I am also aware that to be someone completely different is a difficult thing to achieve as we always put part of our true selves into our online identities, whether we intend to or not. Communication through language only can make interaction more challenging in some respects as it is not possible to read people's body language and facial expressions, which means many social cues aren't communicated. I guess emoticons and web cams combat this to some extent, but I don't think they can replace face to face interaction.
I think Wellman's idea of bonding and bridging ties is an accurate description of the different social bonds we form with people. I guess its not possible to have strong bonds with all the people you know, it would certainly leave you quite exhausted.
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Interesting post! Imagine what it would be like to try and maintain only strong ties? Remember, it's a two-way street in terms of disclosure - would you want everyone you know knowing that much about you?
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