From the discussion we had today, what traits do you think makes it a community? Do you think social media and modern technology could impact on how your community functions?

A community in my mind is a system of people who have a balanced support system throughout the members. Such as in the reading, “the village” is the model community of which everybody helps everybody. Everyone depends on everyone. I feel this idea of community has been changed because of the how technology has impacted our lives. The ability to easily create/ join/ un-join a community has changed how our generation views the idea of community. Instead of needing each other to perform the simple task of sending a message to an out of state friend, we can instantly reach each other and if we choose, we can build relationships without ever seeing the other person. These amazing affordances subsequently has changed how we value community and overall relationships with people. Our technology has given us so much, but has also changed our value system in many ways.

One aspect that I think our view of community has been drastically changed by social media and modern technology is how we work through conflict. The way people had to deal with conflict before the ease of seamless communication was very different than the way our generation consequently deal with issues. “Talking it out” was the main option for conflict resolution before the age of modern technology. Today, we can just close the window on our computer if we don’t like what someone is saying to us or not respond to a text message because we don’t want to fulfill an obligation we forgot about. We can avoid conflict so easily, so we don’t properly develop the conflict resolution skills that are needed to solve real problems.