“Only Connect”—E. M. Forster in an Age of Electronic Communication: Computer‐Mediated Association and Community Networks

Abstract

In this article, we construct a framework for distinguishing various types of computermediated communities. Once that is done, we move on to the analysis of "community networks." Community networks are systems that electronically connect individuals who also share common geographic space. Considering data gathered from 1994 to 1995, we suggest some problems concerning community networks as a locus of computer-mediated interaction. In addition, we propose research directions that may enhance future sociological inquiries into the social understanding of community networks as well as other computermediated associations.Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect. . .Within the world of Howards End, Forster and his characters struggle with the dilemmas of making connections in a Victorian liberal-humanist period that preceded World War I. While the epigraph "only connect" suggests a positive imperative for making ties, it also implies despair for the difficulties of doing so. Indeed, Forster's story documents the tension between ideological visions of connection and the obstacles created by an often hostile world.The tension between context and ideals remains salient in an age of information. There has been much excitement about the Internet's potential to facilitate connections and community. But the complexities of contemporary societies and the nuances of computer-mediated community have generated new forms of community and new related problems. We are witnessing a social web different than that before seen. And without a full understanding of this web, it is unclear that the communities it generates will meet the ideals forwarded by some technological advocates.This article begins to evaluate the era's new communities. First, we suggest a framework for distinguishing various types of computer-mediated communities. Once that is done, we move on to the analysis of "community networks." Community networks are systems that electronically connect individuals who also

Computer‐mediated communication on the internet

“…In contrast, others point to the ephemerality of Internet group membership and the low degree of commitment required to participate as evidence that exclusively computer‐mediated groups foster pseudocommunity at best (Beniger, 1987; S. Jones, 1995). Consistent with this view, a growing body of evidence points to off‐line interaction as a requisite for sustainable online community (Hampton & Wellman, 1999); Virnoche and Marx (1997) label such forms virtual extensions (of real intermittent communities). Wellman and Gulia (1999) claim that, much as in the “real world,” the Net fosters multiple, partial, specialized communities in which social ties are intermittent and varying in strength.…”

The Antecedents of Community-Oriented Internet Use: Community Participation and Community Satisfaction

“…Other research on the community and the Internet has investigated community networks (Virnoche, 1998; Virnoche & Marx, 1997). Community networks “use electronic communications to connect people who live in the same area, city, or neighborhood” (Virnoche, 1998, p. 199).…”

Linking cyber and physical spaces through community detection and clustering in social media feeds

“…Relevant to our work, Harrison and Dourish (1996) recognized the emergence of a new form of space and place that is enabled through the computer-mediated interactions of humans, where space and place can exist on a continuum ranging from the physical to the virtual. This cyber-physical continuum is also described in Virnoche and Marx (1997), in which a typology of communities based on shared geographic and virtual spaces is presented and described through a 'degree of virtualness'. In the same vein, Gruzd, Wellman, and Takhteyev (2011) recently studied the notion of community in Twitter, noting that although Twitter was not designed to support the development of communities, it does foster the development of so-called 'imagined communities'.…”