Our first group meeting

My previous entry mainly dealt with open source software, simply because the concept intrigued me. Although I had heard of it before I have never really given much thought to it so I considered it worth an entry.

This entry however will be entirely dedicated to the progress of our group project on virtual communities. So far we have had one rather short meeting, more or less to brainstorm our ideas. Initially we agreed upon exploring virtual music communities in regard to MySpace (see Karl’s entry Week One). Having exchanged our own experiences with, as well as our views and ideas on virtual communities, we now decided on focusing our study more broadly on the themes of narcissism versus confirmation.

In my opinion, virtual communities such as MySpace and Facebook are primarily about selling, promoting, and publicizing oneself. This, I believe, is precisely why MySpace is often utilized by musicians. It certainly is a cheap and easy way to market oneself and establish a following. For non-musicians, that is the talent-less, these virtual communities also offer room for exposure in what to me often seems a rather narcissistic attempt to gain stardom in a celebrity-obsessed world. But virtual communities can also provide a space for individuals to overcome insecurities and help others achieve a sense of belonging, in other words they can give confirmation.

Personally I thought it would also be interesting to consider the way virtual communities offer an opportunity to embrace one’s deviances. Take Armin Meiwes, in my opinion a perfect, albeit slightly extreme example. Meiwes (who has since become somewhat of a cultural icon) used virtual communities to locate a volunteer who’d consent to being eaten. This case is a particularly interesting one, not least because of its controversy.

I am however aware that there are only a limited number of issues we can cover within the time available. In fact, I’m already beginning to feel the pressure of organizing my time efficiently, especially with deadlines for other course work approaching fast.

To end this entry on a good note, I’d like to mention that so far there have been no difficulties within our group. I’m sure we’ll work well together and hopefully produce some good work.