For much of human history, communities were defined by their geographical location and the societies that the community was a part of. With the arrival of advanced technology such as email, social media, and computers, the definition of community has changed. No longer are communities confined by geography, but can stretch across countries and even continents to connect people with similar interests. Technologies such as the internet have opened communities to people by eliminating stifling factors such as geography and creating new communities in its domain.

With the arrival of the internet, people can form communities despite obstacles such as geography limiting their past options. Some people decry this as impossible: who can be a part of a community they are so far away from? In Danticat’s work, “New York Day Women,” the mother in the story is still a part of her Haitian community and clings to her Haitian identity as shown in paragraph 8: “in Haiti when you get hit by a car, the owner of the car gets out and kicks you for getting blood on his bumper.” Despite living in New York, this mother still applies Haitian advice to her life. Despite this mother being a fictional character, she demonstrates how physicality doesn’t define a person’s membership in a certain community. With this in mind, one cannot say that physical distance defines community since it would state that the mother is not a member of her Haitian community. The same theory works in reverse: no matter the physical distance spanning the members of a community previously, they can overcome that distance to form a community. In Alvord’s case, “the few Native American students at Dartmouth coalesced into a solid community who did almost everything together, Our group was made up of Paiutes, Sioux, Cherokees, Chippewas, Navajos, Pueblos, and many other tribes… nothing compared in intensity to the experience of being a member of that Native American study group.” (par. 20). Despite the distance between these tribes, they were still able to come together and form a community far from their ‘home’ communities. Even before the revolution of the internet, people were able to form communities that defied physical boundaries. With the internet, it is easier to create those connections with people that one might never meet in person. It should be noted that both of these communities were physically based. The mother was a citizen of Haiti before she moved to the United States and the Indian tribes of Dartmouth were held together in community through their experiences. At first, it seems that communities have to be based in the physical world to be ‘true’ communities. This is simply incorrect; one doesn’t need to have a physical community to be part of a community.

Most people believe that communities have to be physically present in the world to be true communities, such as a neighborhood or a family. Technology creates communities by providing the space for those communities to exist. The essay “The New Community” demonstrates this idea in paragraph 18, “Finally, there are… communities made up of people who do not live near one another. Their foundations may not be as stable and deep-rooted as residential communities, but they fulfill many of the social and moral functions of traditional communities.” The difference between an internet community and a traditional community is a simple one; members of internet communities don’t physically interact with each other while traditional communities are built upon this interaction. However, simply removing physical interaction in a community does not suddenly transform the community into not-a-community. In fact, for several years, people have been moving away from the traditional community, with its stifling rules and limiting interactions, to newer and better communities. As Etzioni says again, “In short, we need new communities in which people have choices and readily accommodate divergent subcommunities but still maintain common bonds.” (par. 21). The internet is the perfect breeding ground for these new communities with Etzioni’s guidelines. The internet as a whole is a community in itself. The infinite number of websites, blogs, and forums act as subcommunities; there will always be at least one website, and thus one community, for everyone to find and fit into on the internet. Communities don’t have to take up physical space to have an impact on people. The internet showcases how non-geographically-based communities can help people find communities where they belong.

People argue that technology has only obscured the human race from forming true communities; that technology has cluttered the mind of man and caused it to be filled with trivial nonsense. Thoreau demonstrates this point perfectly: “And I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper. If we read of one man robbed… or one house burned, or one vessel wrecked… we never need read of another. One is enough.” (par. 4). The internet acts as a more improved version of newspapers, delivering news to people faster than ever before while also giving people the ability to share their own opinions of the news. It creates conflict between those people, weakening their bonds of community. For Thoreau and others with his mindset, the only way to improve oneself is to isolate from everyone else. There can be no conflict if there is no one else; there is no cluttered mind if no one shares news with others; there is only a community of one. This way of living is not truly living. Humans are social creatures, evolving through working together as a community to survive. Even now, as mankind thrives, people still look for ways to connect and become a community. The internet has the power to bring people together, to create communities for people who did not have one before. Alvord summarizes this search for connection beautifully, “The… world is tribeless, full of wandering singular souls, seeking connection through societies, clubs, and other groups… [‘Tribe’] provides a feeling of inclusion in something larger, of having a set place in the universe where one always belongs. It provides connectedness and a blueprint for how to live.” (par. 23). Isolation is not the way to live, it is only through community that people can find a place in the world. The internet and the technologies that have come along with it have only made it easier for people to find their own communities. It has expanded community’s definition for the better.

Technology has made it possible to create more communities by eradicating factors that stifle community, such as distance, and made a space for communities to be created. Before the advent of the internet, a community was defined by obstacles like distance, culture, and language. Now, a community is defined by connection and how people can overcome obstacles to create those connections.

Works Cited

Alvord, Lori A. “Walking the Path between Worlds.” The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, 1999.

Danticat, Edwidge. “New York Day Women.” Krik? Krak!, 1995.

Etzioni, Amitai. “The New Community.” The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities, and the Communitarian Agenda, 1993.

Thoreau, Henry D. “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Walden, or Life in the Woods, 1854.