Community Building Online

A.What is community building and how is it done at the local and global level? 

      -Community building is when a group of people develop relationships in order to enhance or create/build a community.  At the local level this would be something as small as a neighborhood.  The community building here can possibly start from the board who are in charge or keeping the neighborhood on track with their wants/needs.  Although the community building in a neighborhood may seem easy, there are still problems that arise. For example, every person is different, therefore is up to the type of people who are living in that neighborhood; if it is a young neighborhood the community is going to be different then if it is a neighborhood of young kids, teens, and elders. The same thing occurs when you are dealing with community building at a global level.  If we go from one end of the spectrum to the other, a global community could be something as big as our world government. When community building is done at a global level there are a lot more stakes at hand.  It is no longer a small group of people being affected; it is now a rather large group of people to say the least. The world government and the community they are trying to build is one of the most difficult tasks that our world faces.  There will never be a time in which the world will be at an agreement about everything and unfortunately makes it harder to build a community (where as a small neighborhood can find a way of coming to an agreement)

B.How does social media and other online communication tools facilitate community building?

      -Social media is a big contribution when it comes to building a community.  Much of the online communication that we see is a community.  Last week we learned specifically how much youtube was seen as a community.  Even though it might not have been seen as a community to me; it was definitely seen a place of sanctuary to many. Facebook is the most popular online communication right now and it has done an amazing job at building a community.  Facebook, along with many others, have found a way for people to connect and reconnect with people who, like my mom says, has not seen since elementary school.

C.  How have you personally used social media to build community?

    -I have not specifically created something myself but I know that I use Facebook all the time and am a part of that community.  There are times when I go home over Christmas break and send out a mass email to my whole soccer team and we create a community online by mass emailing everyone in order to stay in touch.  So, for the time being, we do use social media in order to create a little community.