Untitled - socium.ge

Networked sociability online, off-line 219suggest that over the past thirty years there has been a significant decline ofcommunity in the form of what Robert Putnam (2000) calls “social capital.”In Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Putnamfinds that people are spending less time with friends, relatives, and neighbors;they are more cynical; and they are less likely to be involved in clubs and organizations.Putnam addresses numerous possible causes for this decline, includingsuburbanization, globalization, changing family structures, and financialand temporal pressures. Largely excluding these factors, Putnam focuses ontelevision as the largest factor that has contributed to a decline of social capital.Time devoted to watching television is said to come at the expense ofparticipation in other activities, primarily those that take place outside thehome (Putnam, 2000: 238). Indeed, there has been a decline in the number ofcommunity organizations and other “third places” that provide opportunitiesfor public interaction outside the domestic setting (Oldenburg, 1989). Peopleare increasingly likely to socialize in small groups in private homes rather thanwith large groups in public spaces (Wellman, 1992, 1999: 31–2).The decline is social capital observed by Putnam (2000) occurs too early tobe associated with home computing or Internet use. While the Internet sharesmany characteristics with television, it also shares characteristics with technologiesthat are less passive, like the telephone. However, even the telephonehas contributed to increased privatism. Claude Fischer (1975) argues that,although the telephone has allowed people to maintain a greater number ofsocial ties, it has also shifted communication out of public spaces and into thehome. The growth of mobile phones and wireless computing has broughtcomputer-mediated communication out of the home and onto the street, but itcan also be argued that, when engaging with mobile devices, people cut themselvesoff from public spaces by creating private spheres of mobile interaction.The fear of many pundits is that the Internet, mobile phones, and other formsof computer-mediated communication withdraw people from the public realm,exasperating the trend toward home centeredness and privatization observedby Putnam (2000).VIRTUAL COMMUNITY: HOPE FOR TOMORROW?The “virtual community” has done much to highlight the potential for communitiesto form beyond the confines of geographic space. Enthusiasts argue thatelectronic spaces, such as multi-user domains (i.e., MUDs, MOOs, andMUSHs) and graphical worlds (e.g., Sims Online and other MMORPGs),provide a new realm of public space (Mitchell, 1995), and there are seeminglyendless accounts of how cyberspace can facilitate the formation of newcommunities of interest (Calhoun, 1998). Some even suggest that there is an