The online community that I investigated is Facebook. The web address of Facebook is www.facebook.com. The focus of this online community is to connect friends, work collegues, family etc. It is a social networking website.
There are various interactive tools that can be utilised on this website. Facebook allows for users to instantly message their friends or family who are online. Members are able to join different networks, upload photos, put messages on their friends profile and play games on Facebook. People are able to contribute to this online community by creating their own groups, joining different groups, updating their profile and writing about their thoughts and feelings.
People who join this online community are generally seeking social interaction and they want to reconnect with the important people in their lives. This community may give them a sense of belonging.
On Facebook personal information is generally shared. People are able to put up their personal information, photos, thoughts, feelings etc.
Ethical issues may arise on Facebook such as identity theif, safety and privacy issues may also arise. However Facebook aims to keep all of their members safe. Their are restrictions of Facebook such as children under the age of thirteen can not sign up to have a Facebook account. There is also a list of saftey tips that are avaible for all the members to view.
This community allows for people to socially interact regardless of how far away they are from each other. It is convient for users as they are able to talk to their love ones easily.
This online community however does not offer face to face human inteaction. The traditional communities did offer face to face interaction. It may be possible that Facebook users become isolated from the outside world, especially if they spend a large amount of time on the website.
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