7.1: My Community: Ithaca

A major community that I am proud to be a part of, is my hometown of Ithaca, NY. It is a broad community with many different attributes and properties, but it is one that has had a profound impact on my life.

I was born and raised here in Ithaca, so I am keen to my environment, and am very comfortable here. In this community, the people who live and work here are the actors. As Haythornwaite puts it, "actors are generally thought of as people, particularly when discussing community
(126)." Also in the community that is Ithaca, the actors are brought together by everyday relations. As described by Haythornwaite, "relations connect actors. The connection may be based on the exchange of intangibles such as information, social support, or advice, or of tangibles such as money, goods, or services (126)." Therefore, any time a person communicates or does business with another person in Ithaca, they are tying themselves to each other, resulting in thousands of relationships being formed every single day. If the actors in my community maintain those relations, they are said to have "ties" with those they are connecting with.
"A tie is when actors maintain relations, particularly when those relations include social and emotional support and intimacy or self-disclosure (Haythornwaite 126)." The strongest ties are usually formed between co-workers and friends, and with the vast amount of people in my community there are likely thousands of strong ties linking us together.

There is an unlimited number of things that members of the Ithaca community share, and that is called common ground. While we surely all have different opinions and feelings about our community, we all share in our experiences and are bound by this city's characteristics. When something happens in our city, many of us are affected, and we are sharing a common ground. We also share in reciprocity, as many events and interactions bind us together. When a crime happens, or when the Ithaca Festival comes yearly, or when the student's come back to town, or when we see our neighbor, or when the fireworks go off on the Fourth of July, or when David Lisa rides by on his/her bike, we are sharing in those experiences and they are what tie us all together.

And while our daily interactions are mainly face-to-face, there is also a CMC aspect that goes along with the community. "Online communication also captures many of the features of strong tie communication and outcomes associated with community (Haythornwaite 126)." The Ithaca Journal's website has a message board for comments to be posted relating to articles that are published. This results in many heated exchanges and opinions being thrown around about our community and the news that is effecting us. This adds to the reciprocity of the community and allows users to connect in more ways than just face to face.

http://forums.theithacajournal.com/viewtopic.php?t=9873
http://cornell.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2212963367

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