I have been going to the same summer camp for the past 10 years. This camp, on the surface, is not very unique from other overnight opportunities: we have athletics, arts and crafts, waterfront activities, and swim. However, what keeps me coming back year after year is the overwhelmingly strong sense of community that develops throughout the 8 week summer. Within the large community that is camp, there are subsections of smaller groups. There are four villages divided by age and gender, and within each village there are further divisions based on age. There is also a divide between the staff community, Counselors in training, and campers. Hawthornewaite’s SNA approach to social networking looks at how each member of the community interacts at a micro level. Factors that are important to consider include reciprocity, common ground, and the specific ties that make give the community its identity. In this case, there are so many different bonds and complex social networks that exist that it is difficult to draw lines between them. Even people that appear to have very little in common, such as a 8 year old camper and a 25 year old staff member, each are intimately connected by at least the one bond of the common experience of attending camp that summer.
The hobby system, which allows campers and staff to break into smaller groups and work in an area of interest, is an example of common ground. Hobbies create min communities within the larger camp context and further define an individuals group identity. This also reinforces further relationship development as the actors get to meet people who they normally would not get a chance to talk to.
Reciprocity is another important factor of a community. The staff's job is to provide a safe and fun summer for the campers. While they aren’t aware of it, campers are always reciprocating the hard work of the staff through their laughter and great material humor.
At this point, I have only talked about this community as it appears offline in FTF. However, CMC is vital in maintaining and facilitating the close bonds that were formed over the summer. During the last morning before everyone goes home, amongst the common site of tears are campers copying down all of their new friends screen names, email addresses and phone numbers so that they can keep in touch over the year. Likewise, for the staff, a directory complete with this information is sent out over the list serve. Facebook groups ranging from inside jokes (an example of a self directed identity claim of the Brunswikian model) to general camp appreciation groups are numerous and very popular.
Much to my dismay, each summer I receive a slew of facebook friend requests from campers who put me in the awkward position of deciding whether I should be clicking “view limited profile only” when accepting. Facebook fosters the development of both strong and weak ties and provides an online forum for talking about memories and the anticipation of the following summer. CMC is the glue that holds the community in place over the 10 months out of the year where we aren’t together.
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2 comments:
Jason--I think you did a great job applying the SNA approach to your summer camp. As another who went to camp for 10 years, I can definitely relate first-hand to some of the points you made while analyzing this social network. Since you mentioned your camp is divided into four villages and then further into groups, I suspect that stronger ties forms between members of these individual subsets due to more common ground. However, I like that you mentioned that activities such as the hobby system can provide common ground by allowing campers and staff to share an area of interest. The idea that an 8 year old camper and a 25 year old staff member can become strongly connected through spending that summer together at camp truly shows something about the intertwined network that makes up your summer camp community. You brought up a good example of reciprocity and I believe that many other examples probably exist in this sort of community as well. Back when I was a camper, I can recall giving close bunkmates a prized snack such as a “cup of noodles” when I was hungry, knowing that they would give me some of their snacks when I so desired. Lastly, I like how you extended your FtF community to the online world. I definitely agree that it is CMC plays a big role in holding a community such as this in place during the school year.
Jason,
Nice post! First of all, I can’t believe you went to the same camp for 10 years! You must have developed many strong ties with the people in your camp community. I’ve never been to a camp myself, but many of my friends have shared their camp experiences with me and they loved it. You make an excellent point about the 8 year old and 25 year old staff member forming a bond by being in the same camp together. I like the idea of having a hobby system because like you said, it supports the idea of common ground. Campers and staff with similar hobbies can interact and build relationships that the camp environment allows. Also, it is great that your community can still manage to maintain your relationships, other than in the summer, using CMC. It allows you and other members of your community to reinforce and solidify your camp community.
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