Assignment 7, option1

The communities from my high school are among my most cherished. Having attended a small, closely-knit high school in New York City, I developed strong relationships with both students and faculty. As a current member of the alumni community, I look forward to participating in alumni-related events and strengthening the alumni community in general. Though I feel apart of the overall high school community, I more strongly associate with the smaller basketball team community. Having played basketball for one of the top New York City high-school teams, I developed a strong relationship with my teammates and coaches; and, I sustain my relationships and the community through the use of CMC, as understood by the Social Network Perspective.
Amidst a heated debate concerning the legitimacy of community in an online setting, Haythornwaite asks in her article, “Social Networks and Online Communities,” the appropriate question of “how can community exist without physical co-location?” In contrast to earlier theories of social networking and community that dwell primarily on geography, Haythornwaite claims that communities can exist without geographical proximity. Implementing the Social Network Perspective, which focuses instead on interpersonal ties, shared focus, common purposes, and common identities, Haythronwaite ultimately proves that despite the leanness of computer-mediated-communication, communities undoubtedly thrive in CMC settings. As Haythornwaite states that the Social Network Perspective liberates the community from its geographical constraints, she suggests that it “provides a means of examining communities whether maintained online or offline.” Central to the Social Network perspective, then, is an emphasis on the exchange of information and advice, social support, mutual help, shared history, and language.
Analyzing my high school basketball team community with a Social Network Perspective, it is evident that my community consists of both strong and weak ties. Former members of the basketball team that continue to see each other on a regular basis form strong ties; and, members of the team that interact infrequently contribute to the community as weak ties. Both strong and weak ties sustain the community as they offer members invaluable networking opportunities after college. Ultimately, the basketball community thrives not on a geographic proximity, but on the community members’ common ground, and reciprocal devotion to the school’s basketball program.
As Etzioni and Etzioni (1999) “emphasize how support via multiple modes is likely to have the best community outcomes,” it is evident that communities that employ both face-to-face and computer-mediated-communication, more effectively bond and share values, as opposed to communities that rely only on one form of communication. My basketball community supports this claim as it recently shifted from a strictly face-to-face community, to a community employing both face-to-face functions and CMC community forms of outreach and alumni involvement, resulting now in a stronger sense of community than it had provided in a FtF community alone. In this regard, the synergy of online and offline communication greatly improves the community to which I belong.