"Net members are distinctive in providing information, support, companionship, and a sense of belonging to persons they hardly know offline or who are total strangers."
When I first read this article, I immediately thought of LDS Missionary Moms. I was talking to a mom this weekend who has a son on a mission in Costa Rica. She told me how there is this site that allows you to join the email group with the other moms who have sons in your same mission. It allows the moms to better know what is going on and have some support. While they have never met and will never met, they can chat with the other moms. Hey can help each other while they are missing their sons and gives them a community that understands what they are going through.
This quote made me think of when I became friends with a girl by the name of Carlie Bond. She was the roommate of my best friend who was currently going to college at BYU-I while I was at BYU. We became friends because we always commented and liked each others posts on our mutual friend Whitney's page. 
Eventually we talked enough and I finally visited her and she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids even though we had only met in real life twice. However, I knew her very well because of all of our internet interactions. "Net users usually trust strangers much like people gave rides to hitchhikers in the flower child days of the 1960s." 
It is interesting to see that the repayment of support and social resources can be exchanged to help out a mutual friend in the network. You were able to build a relationship and share experiences with a friend over the internet which then brought you too together to meet in person.
ReplyDeleteNoelle, this is a good start. I like the way you are quoting directly from the material and looking for examples in your own life of technology-mediated relationships. See if you can push your posts to actually analyze the ways in which your online experiences confirm or refute the claims made by the author.
ReplyDelete