Community Based Identity

The definition of a community varies.  Sociologists have their own, so do anthropologists, a field that I distrust. 

Four communities in this photo?

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

I studied Anthropology in college and for the likes of me did not understand how someone who did not speak languages of indigenous people of Africa, Australia, North America, New Zealand, Asia and South America could write books about their customs and culture.

A very loose definition of a community would be a group of individuals that share a common interest, religion, language or habitat.  The latter could be a piece of land, church, submarine, fire station, fish market or the internet.

The internet does not have a physical space like a village in Poland or Trinidad and Tobago islands, but it is a community for all intent and purposes because it has all the attributes of a traditional village.  The only exception is that there is no physical contact between members like shaking hands, harvesting, eating or watching toddlers falling as they try to walk.

The absence of a physical space is a plus, a motivating factor that frees community members from cultural, gender, professional and religious values.  What is shunned in a traditional village is accepted in the virtual one because of anonymity.  The kid that does not fit in a traditional school because of his height, weight or parents’ financial status might be king in a virtual school because nobody knows what he looks like.

Being anonymous might be the brick and mortar of the online community, but it also has a hierarchy: a managing director, preacher, queen or idol that cement the psychological fulfilment members crave.  He or she posts photos members can worship, thus breaking the anonymity rule but it is accepted because they must worship something tangible, the tie that binds.

This however, unbinds the traditional community, dividing it into those that glide well online and those intimidated by all the swiping and scrolling, causing great fiction at home and work spaces.

The traditional community is trying to keep its head above water, especially with bringing up kids but it is not winning.  A possible course of action is conformity: if you cannot beat them, join them.

Advertising did.  It is online, where buyers live in communities with no CLOSED FOR THE DAY signs.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.