After reading the textbook, I took some time to look over at how many Discord servers I am in currently. For people that don’t know what Discord is, Discord is a social media service mainly for gamers (that was what they said initially, now it doesn’t look like it), which allows users to create special servers pretty easily. I found that I am currently in part of 17 servers, with 12 of them having over 100 members. However, I only found 8 of them that I have talked in at least once in the past year, and 5 of them I have never even posted a single reply or message in the entire time I have been part of that server. So the question I have now is, am I still a member of these communities I play no role in? The argument can go either way, and for the reasons as well.
The answer to if whether I am still part of all of these communities probably depends on the sense of community. From McMillan and Chavis’s theory of sense of community, this can be answered by determining the boundary of membership. The textbook cites the definition of membership as “the idea that a community has geographical or social boundaries, and we can determine who belongs in the community and who does not” (Gruman et al. 327). But such boundaries are hard to identify. Reich’s study on adolescents in social media community membership showed that the boundaries of the community were difficult to distinguish, for there wasn’t a clear cohesive group all members belonged to. With this in mind, I can look back to my past posts in the server (if any), and the recognition of my existence in those servers.
After checking the 9 servers I am not actively participating in the past year, I found mixed results. Out of the 9 inactive servers, the 5 I have not even posted a single post obviously didn’t recognize me, except for those that shoot a welcome message when they see a new member has popped in. That happened in only 2 out of the 5, so for the other 3, I am not recognized as a member, and I do not have a sense of membership as well (obviously for I have never gave an introduction). I just stay in that server to get information about game updates and seeing the status of errors in the game server. The other 4 servers that I was once active, 1 just exists without any activity, and 1 was like the 3 servers that don’t recognize me as a member and vice versa. However, the remaining two differs from the examples I am giving. The views of membership were contrary in terms of myself and the people in that server.
Both servers involve the schools I used to go in the past, one is a server with people from my high school, and the other server is for a club I was in during my time at my previous college. Since I decided to transfer colleges, I literally ditched them and been staying silent ever since. Since I wasn’t that active in the server already, I thought they will be forgetting my existence quite easily. But since last April (the time I disappeared from the server), I have received over 30 DMs, mentions, or tags from members in the two servers, wondering where I am and why I am not giving any reaction in the servers. I do recall a DM I received earlier this month, but I didn’t remember that I was muting that many mentions and DMs. I did feel bad about not giving any response to them, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like responding. It isn’t that they were hostile to me and vice versa. It’s just that I don’t see being in the community anymore while the others still see me as a member.
There is a contradiction in how myself and my former schoolmates see my status as a member of the two Discord communities. For the rest of the communities, it was either that I saw myself as a member and so did others, or I didn’t see myself as a member and others too. But for the specific two communities, I was still seen as a member while I didn’t. Regarding these opposite perspectives of my membership, am I still a member of these communities in terms of McMillan and Chavis’s theory? Is it up to the self, group, or a third person to determine if a person is part of a community? It’s sort of like arguing if a person that is socially loafing in a group project is still part of a group; definition wise yes, the loafer’s term is yes as well, while the others might see it as a no. The answer depends on who’s perspective is right in that given circumstance.
Reading this chapter and sorting my unread messages in Discord allowed me to think about my memberships deeply. And at the same time, I found out that there were contrary perspectives of my membership status between myself and others. They still see me as a member, while I don’t; I don’t know what an outsider will say but I guess there might be no answers. After this, I might decide to respond to some of the DMs. I am certain that none of the people in the two contrary opinioned servers know that I transferred schools, so I think I should be informing them as a reason for my disappearance. But I can also say that’s too early, I want to enjoy my college life I restarted in Penn without being tangled with my past. I’ll just say here that if someone from the two servers finds this blog some way with the magic of the internet, know that I am alive and well.
References:
Gruman, Jamie A., et al. Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. SAGE, 2017.