Tutorial Six : The Internet and Online Communities

Provide the Web Address and a hyperlink for the three online communities

Before we get started on this blog it would be wise to define what online communities are

According to wikipipedia A virtual community is a social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals. One of the most pervasive types of virtual community include social networking services, which consist of various online communities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_community 

The online communities that i have decided to look at are ones that look at a number of mental health illnesses.

I am going to look at http://community.mentalhelp.net/

This website is an online community it provides specific information about a large number of mental health disorders, as well as this it provides a forum for article publication and allows indvidual vistors to engage in conversation between each other . This website also allows indviduals to publish such things as videos, blogs and podcats and it encourages indviduals to comment and share experiences that they have undergone.

Members contribute to this community in a number of ways the main ways this is achived is by joining a discussion group, posting either a new comment or replying to an existing comment or thread.  This website is setup for indvidual members to post their   problems, provide advice or support through reflecting on their personal experiences and draw on others knowledge and discuss issues that may be worring or causing  concern for them . Information shared in this website relays on indviduals to provide a reciprocal relationship

There is a large varity of content that is covered within this website here are some examples
 - Psychotherapy and other Treatments
 - General support
 - Depression
 Along with a huge number of other topics.

There are a large number of ethical issues that are placed around all online communities. some of the main issues are identity of the indvidual. Many people choose to remain unknowen within this sort of community which can lead to all sorts of problems


Facebook is a social networking site that people use to keep in touch with each other.  You can add people as friends, send messages, update your own personal profile and keep in touch generally keep in touch
Facebook is very interactive almost everone can contribute andbenifit frm the site. People contrubute by joining and having their own profile page. Services provided include emialing, photos, web to mobile communication, notifications, groups and applications and it i a simple and easy way to stay touch with friend and family world wide.
People choose to contribute to Facebook to conect with people they know and to keep in touch with them. Some people join for leisure and some for buisness and promotion.Ethical Issues that may arise with Facebook include; privacy and confidentiality. There are a numbrer settings that can change amount of privacy tat people can observe when uing cebok. if users do not have privacy settings then anyone is able to see everyone elses settings. Photos can also be uploaded onto Facebook of other people, which everyone is able to see with out consent from the indviduals who are in the photos. Also you can never really be sure who you are talking to which can cause a large mount f ethical debate.

Facebook is a fairly new concept and has only been around for around 7 years however it has become a worldwide phenomenal. Below are a number of links to pages and groups that link to verious worldwide mental healthgroups and pages set up to assisit indviduals who both suffer and are interested in mental health.

This youtube video looks at all aspects and impacts of facebook.

The two links below show some of the content that can be found on facebook.

National instituate of mental health.:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/nimhgov

Mental Health Organsation
http://www.facebook.com/YourMentalHealth

My third online community is i decided to look at is YouTube. Youtube is an Online community, it is a way for people to communicate posting comments and have discussions in relation to the video topic. there are millions of different videos to suit everyones likes and dislikes.  Youtube acts as an interactive site as individuals can post their thoughts on videos as well as like or dislike them. It also allows friends to share videos over such things as blogs ect.

An example of the content that can be viewed on youtube is

this video looks at the Impacts of Social Networks and the ethical issues that are posed.

Benefits these communities provide over traditional geographical community:

 

All of these online communities provide geographical community in the sense that any individual can join to them or post comments. The benefits of this is that there is a wide range of ideas and thoughts posted from each individual that one may not feel happy discussing in person. Online communities are also a simple and easy way to keep intouch with everyone all around the world and it is also a very very cheep way of doing so. 

 

This communites lack emotions and creates a large number of ethical issues than partaking in traditional communities. online communinities also lack social interaction and can infact lead to social isolation as indviduals become souly reliable on these online communities. The Facebook song linked above also provides a good understanding on the impacts of social networking in regards to traditional communities.