In Fragmented by Technologies: A Community in Cyberspace, Mike Davis questions whether the kind of individuality expressed on the Web can provide the proper framework for the building of healthy personal interaction and the development of meaningful communities. Davis writes:

     "The emergence of the Internet as a potential medium of communication raises a number of issues, not least among them, whether the sense of community that may arise in face-to-face (F2F) interaction will be possible to replicate in virtual space. In other words, will computer mediated communication (CMC) allow people, who may be distant in time and space, context and culture from one another, to manifest some or all of the characteristics of groups in physical and temporal contact?"

     Davis suggests that many theorists may be overestimating the (assumed to be) inherent community building potential of the internet, and that in fact communicating over the internet may disguise problems that are more basic to communication in general.

     He writes: 

     "It is my belief that we can become mesmerized by the technology and we can become encouraged to assume that its magical qualities will overcome the behaviors that often make communication and collaboration in F-2-F so troublesome." 

     "The capacity that users have to import their normative understanding from other social contexts is hardly new nor surprising given that they are the product of contingent social experiences over years. Learning the new, when there are no clues other than what is in text form on the screen, is a source of understandable caution. Attempts to create 'netiquette' do not prevent 'flaming' - aggressive and hostile communication - or its threat, that often forces others into silence (see also lurking)."

     What Davis seems to be asking is: what kind of community is it that allows hostility without the threat of physical retribution, that allows us to work against each other with none of the ramifications this would be present if we were together talking on the street, or in a PTA meeting, etc.? In other words, will we create constructive "virtual communities" on the web? If Turkle is correct, we will find in computer mediated communication new ways of shaping our self-images, and new ways of communicating with each other. But, the new freedoms are a double-edged sword, and so far it isn’t clear which is the sharper edge. On the one side, we may feel able to express ourselves in new and constructive ways, on the other we may be freed to lash out and alienate others. As a result of the latter, we may soon see less community building, and more polarization among individuals, and further atomization across societies.  Everyone holed up in their rooms "communicating" by lying, deceiving, and verbally attacking each other over a keyboard is not a pleasant idea, to be sure.  But, we've had telephones for quite some time, and other than the occasional prank call ( and which do you get more of--pranks or solicitations?) we are mostly polite on the phone.  There are also laws against harassment, and other than harassment from professional hackers, it should not be difficult in the future to trace from which computer accounts harassing e-mails originate, and block reception.

     Not only do computer technologies and electronic communication networks theoretically have the potential to reshape the way we think about our individual identities, but they may also affect the way we view others, and our how we shape our sense of community. The single largest issue here is whether the technologies encourage multiplicity and connectivity between individuals and the groups to which they belong, or whether they actually promote fragmentation and division. Viewed from this angle, people will either come to use the web as a way of encountering new and challenging ideas about themselves and others--as a way of celebrating diversity and the richness of community involvement--or, web users will seek out and use only information and ideas with which they are already familiar, to the exclusion of all others—as a way of further isolating and insulating themselves from the rest of society. If use of the Internet, new forms of electronic communication, and electronic publishing fall too far off center in either of the above directions, society and the democratic process will clearly be affected.

Continue this section.           View site map.