On-line communities are an ever growing form of interaction between people. You can find an on-line community of people for just about any subject you could possibly think of. For the most part, these communities are helpful. They provide support and tips on a subject in which you may not have any physical friends or family that can help you with. Even though many of these people never meet, they communicate on a regular basis and build relationships based upon their common interests.
I have a friend, Crystal, who developed an interest in turtles. She got five turtles over the course of a month period! She really did not know a lot about turtles or how to take care of them so she started looking up turtle groups on line. She now has several turtle tanks and talks about them and treats them like her children! She loves them and has learned so much about them. She has even rescued one and nursed it back to health. She talks about the people in her turtle group all of the time and has developed many friendships through the groups.
Another example, and this is a big one, is the prevalence of on-line fitness groups. These groups are usually started by health professionals or someone who has learned a lot and developed much knowledge regarding health and fitness. Other people who are passionate about health and fitness or just want to learn more about it then join the groups. Several people I know have been impacted in very positive ways by joining an on-line fitness (and I am a part of three of them myself)! Many of them provided access to meal plans and exercise plans to help you on your journey. The positive interactions on the group message boards are motivating and the stories about other people’s fitness journey are downright inspiring. I hope to have an inspiring story myself one day.
While my experience and the experience of many people I know with on-line communities is positive, it must be said that there are other negative on-line communities out there too. As our lesson states, pro-anorexia sites and even on Facebook can create negative feelings (Lesson 11 Commentary). As mentioned above, there are on-line communities for just about anything you can think of. This includes groups who thrive on racism, bullying, terrorism, and other possibly illegal activities. It is these groups that spark the debate of whether or not the government should be allowed to monitor on-line activity. A controversy in 2012 regarding the National Security Agency surveillance program was the source of apprehension for many American’s using the internet (Rivers 2015). According to an article by USA Today, 57% of American’s do not think the government should be allowed to monitor the on-line activity of the American public but 82% think that the government should monitor terrorism suspects (Rivers 2015). My question to the American people would be, how do you expect our government to find terrorist suspects without monitoring the internet? It is a sensitive subject for many. What do you think?
Lesson 11: Community, 2016. Applied Social Psychology. Pennsylvania State University. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802487/modules
Rivers, Eileen 2015. Is it ever OK for government to monitor us? Your Say Interactive. USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/04/09/spying-government-phone-calls-your-say/25548259/