As a freshman, it’s hard not to be exposed to the Greek life that’s a major part of Cornell. As I walk on campus each day, I always see students proudly wearing the letters of their respective fraternities and sororities.
Haythornwaite uses Social Network Analysis to examine what is exchanged, communicated, and shared by pairs of individuals in the community. In addition, she talks about social networking, common ground, and reciprocity, which produce social capital.
I am a member of a sorority, which is a community that started offline and expanded to the online community. My sorority has developed a chapter Facebook group and is also part of the national Facebook group. In CMC, we interact through Facebook, our sorority forum, listserve, and through instant messaging. These forms of communication do not even include richer media such as FtF and on the phone. Through these different communication media, we can share our thoughts and experiences. Etzioni and Etzioni (1999) state that “Communities that combine both FtF and CMC systems would be able to bond better and share values more effectively than communities that rely upon only one or the other mode of communication.” In addition, CMC allows sisters from other chapters to interact and develop relationships that they cannot form FtF. Also through CMC, sisters on Cornell campus can interact with their alumni that are elsewhere. CMC helps to further develop and solidify the community.
According to Gemeinschaft, actors share a common purpose and focus and have strong interpersonal ties. Since we are all part of the same sorority and we are all sisters, we can develop strong ties among ourselves. My sorority has sisterhood events that allow for sisters who don’t know each other well to have a better chance to bond and form stronger ties. The sisterhood events support the social networking that Haythornwaite talks about. The events, such as potlucks where we all cook and have dinner together, allow for relationships to develop and bonding to occur. Some sisters may develop stronger ties when they are from the same chapter because it allows for FtF and CMC interaction. Sisters that are distant tend to form weaker ties due to the lack of FtF interaction. Although, we may have stronger ties with some sisters and weaker ties with others, we still have a common ground. We are all sisters of the same sorority and we share the same purpose and ideals. We are committed as sisters and have shared values and a shared identity. The sisterhood I share allows me to ask for help when I need it. I would have no hesitation to ask for help from another sister and they should not hesitate to ask me for help. This supports the idea of reciprocity where individuals reinforce one another.
http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/10/cornell-community-one-community-i.html
http://comm245red.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-71-camp-community.html
3 comments:
I think your blog offers good analysis of the social network perspective community, as put forth by Haythornwaite. Your sorority is a perfect example of a community that benefits both from a geographical proximity, and an online space. As Etzioni and Etzioni (1999) say, which you include in your blog, communities that are both online and offline create stronger bonds and networks than communities that are only offline. Your sorority fosters a strong sense of community through face-to-face interactions, but also through its facebook chapter, which helps further solidify the sense of community and connects sisters from different chapters. Overall, your example illustrates well the social network approach to community.
Selina,
I really enjoyed your post. I am in a fraternity, and have a very similar preference as you described. We have strong FTF bonds and ties that extended to the online world in many of the medias that you talked about. Something that is interesting about a fraternity and sorority system is that all of the members are connected, even the alumni. While you may have never met most of the sisters in your sorority at this point, im sure such an organization could be instrumental to helping you find a job one day. This common ground gives you a leg up on the competition. This is an example of reeping the benefits of weak ties. Great Post.
I really liked this post a lot. I am also part of a sorority and it is definitely a community that is defined by Haythornthwaite's SNA attributes. Our FtF bonds are definitely made stronger by our CMC connections. Facebook is definitely the leader in where our connections are made. Do you find that even just stalked sisters who graduated last year online makes us a little closer, that we can keep in touch? Anyways, good post!
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