I agree with you Emma when you say that online communities often appear to be created without boundaries, however I believe that when a person looks beneath the surface, the boundaries can be experienced like invisible force fields. As a result of new media technologies, the geographical boundaries of offline communities are not encountered and people from all around the world can mobilize to deliberate and debate online. People no longer need to rely on physical proximity to be connected, however as danah boyd (2005) puts it, “online, physical place may no longer be the limiting factor, but social space” (p. 200) is.
Much like offline communities, in my experience I have found that people online tend to form tight knit groups with like-minded people. There are norms attached to these virtual cultures and therefore it is difficult for diverse groups to converge. People may find themselves in an ‘echo chamber’ where they only hear from others confirmation of what they already think (Leadbeater, 2007). Therefore, for someone with different views and norms to enter such a group they will encounter social barriers restricting entry. An example of this is former Prime Minister John Howard's attempt to reach a young audience via MySpace during his last couple of years as Prime Minister. After visiting John Howard's MySpace page during his 2007 election campaign, I think it is safe to say that he failed in his attempt to reach young MySpace users, as although he had many ‘friends’, a majority of these people used their friend status to send him abusive messages. I believe that this is because MySpace is a social network with social boundaries, and Howard was seen as abusing this space for political gain. Therefore even though he was not restricted entry on a geographical or technological basis, he was socially outcast by many.
The issue of social barriers and boundaries online is very interesting and I believe can be experienced by anyone who tries to enter a social space where their views differ from the mainstream views of the web space. Your blog Emma has encouraged me to look into this issue further, especially in regard to my interest which is politicians' increasing use of the internet for political campaigning and reaching audiences that are not their core constituency. I have written a blog titled Online Cultures and Politics that you may be interested in.
References
boyd, d. (2005). Sociable technology and democracy. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://www.danah.org/papers/ExtremeDemocracy.pdf
Leadbeater, C. (2007). Social software for social change. Retrieved April 6, 2006, from http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/cms/xstandard/social_software.pdf.
To see Emma's post "Joining the League of Cyber Nerds", Click here.
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