Connections and Communities in Virtual Worlds Designed for Children

Abstract

As more and more people are interacting through online spaces, questions emerge as to how these computer-mediated interactions impact people's social connections and ability to form communities. Some of the online spaces that are exceedingly popular are virtual worlds designed specifically for children. This study, using participant-observations and content analysis, explored how users communicate, form connections, and develop community in children's virtual worlds. This 3-year study found that users find creative ways to bypass design features to share personal information, establish group membership, and build connections both in the virtual worlds and on their accompanying fan sites. These findings provide valuable insight into the social affordances of popular online spaces for children, as well as expand modern-day conceptualizations of social connection and community. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Exploring online and gaming communities through community psychology

“…influence, defined as the sense one affects the community and its members; and immersion, defined as a state of flow during community navigation. These studies (Loomis & Friesen, 2011;Reich et al, 2014) highlight the ability to form communities even when members do not know each other offline, and even with restrictive site policies that limit communication, as was the case in the study on children's websites. These studies support the conceptualization of sharing personal information as an antecedent to sense of community (Blanchard, 2008).…”

“…The largest category, community building and maintenance, houses seven articles that address the creation and upkeep of communities. Researchers explored online communities of third culture and missionary children (Loomis & Friesen, 2011), children in general (Reich, Black, & Korobkova, 2014), older Chinese migrants (Li, Hodgetts, & Sonn, 2014), social media in general (Niland, Lyons, Goodwin, & Hutton, 2015;Reich, 2010), World of Warcraft (WoW) players , and homeless people in Madrid (Vázquez, Panadero, Martín, & del Val Diaz-Pescador, 2015). Most of these studies are descriptive in nature, although one-Reich (2010)-directly tested hypotheses.…”

“…Given the existence of mixed evidence for a sense of online community and confusion (not just in community psychology) over how to measure this construct , it may be helpful to follow O'Connor and colleagues' lead and spend more time asking online community members what a sense of online or virtual community means to them. We can see a desire for community (Li et al, 2014;Loomis & Friesen, 2011;Reich et al, 2014). However, there seem to be challenges specifying exactly what desire for community means regarding online worlds and how technology can affect our sense of community in general.…”

“…Further, Niland and colleagues (2015) suggest that online connections are just as important as offline connections. There is no doubt that internet is increasingly becoming an important way for us to interact with others in our society (Li et al, 2014;Loomis & Friesen, 2011;Reich et al, 2014). In fact, one article illustrated a case where lack of access to these technologies can have a negative effect on individuals (Vázquez et al, 2015).…”

Virtual Parent-Child Relationships: A Case Study

“…As Reich, Black and Korobkova (2014) point out in their study of children's use of virtual spaces, there is also an important opportunity for research such as this to explore the subversive, unintended and emergent use of such technology and spaces, in relation to peers but also in relation to family members.…”