Studying online communities has resonated with me on a personal level. Over the last handful of years, I have been actively involved in an online gaming community. Online communities allow a person to customize their experience. This includes screening and choosing which people a person will be exposed to and interact with while being a member in the community (Nelson, 2018). For me, I chose to find a gaming community that played the same genre of games on the PlayStation 4. Though joining my gaming community was initially only for the specific hobby of video games, it has grown into much more than that over the years. It has developed into a complex social network with friends spread out across the United States. We maintain our community by actively playing games with one another and connecting on various social media platforms to share even more interactions outside of strictly gaming (Nelson, 2018). Our friendships have extended into meeting up in the “real” world and exploring even more hobbies we share together.
Through joining my community, I have found several benefits to it outside of gaming. The first major benefit of joining my gaming community was an instant boost in being around people that liked similar things. As mentioned previously, I was able to hand select the community I joined, and the people I was exposed to within the community. This gave me an opportunity to weed out people that do not enjoy playing the same games. I also learned how to communicate better with people, in general. Playing competitive games that require call outs, and teamwork helped me gain confidence in speaking with other people. I have noticed that this has also helped in the “real “world, as I have applied this to real life problem solving within a group setting.
In addition to this benefit, I have been able to practice my leadership skills in my online community. I enjoy gaming quite a bit and have dedicated a decent amount of my free time to it while I have been in college. It takes many leaders within an online community to ensure that it is enjoyable for everyone, and members are happy. I took on a leadership role last year for my community that revolves around monitoring our website, guiding new members, and creating community-based challenges. I volunteer to do these tasks to keep our members engaged with our community. As found in a study conducted by Shu-Hsun Ho and Chiung-Hui Huang, the more engagement by a leader within a virtual community, the higher involvement by other members (2009). These researchers also concluded that many people take on leadership roles to help increase the ability to organize, manage, and communicate (Ho & Huang, 2009). I have used all three skills during the past year, and I have even gained experience with how websites are built and maintained.
Online communities have had a positive impact in my life. I have been able to explore and enjoy the hobby of gaming with people I consider to be very good friends. I have been able to test out my leadership abilities, while also working on my communication skills. Although these skills were learned in an online community, they can and already have had an impact in the “real” world. Due to this, I will be forever grateful for my experience with online communities.
References:
Ho, S., & Huang, C. (2009). Exploring success factors of video game communities in hierarchical linear modeling: The perspectives of members and leaders. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(3), 761-769. 10.1016/j.chb.2009.02.004
Nelson, A. (2018). Lesson 11: Community. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1924488/modules
I also enjoyed reading your post! All too often we are only exposed to the horror stories of gaming and how detrimental it can be to our health, but I deeply appreciate hearing the positive psychology of it. I found it interesting how you brought up the leaderships skills you learned, honed, and applied within your online community; do you think it would ever be “acceptable” to list that as actual experience on something like a resume? I think on a basic level it equates to volunteering within your physical community. You yourself detailed how you volunteer on the regular to maintain your community (including the “housework” of keeping an online website). This absolutely translates to real-world experience. Imagine if we conceived all internet interactions as real-world ones. Great post!
I enjoyed reading your blog post this week! It is nice to hear about a first-hand positive effect of online gaming. It sounds like this has really benefited you and built some “real world” skills. One caution has always been to ensure that you are not completely immersing yourself into a virtual reality, but it seems that you can very easily differentiate the two. Too much immersion has been found to increase loneliness and depression, but it seems like you have chosen a great online community to be a part of and have made great friends.
I’m glad that this hobby has brought so much meaning to your life and hope that it continues to do so!