Community and Consumption: The Transformation of Social Space Online [2005, rptd. 2008]

Abstract

The widespread use of networked communication technologies has led to the creation of electronic social spaces that challenge traditional ideas about community, citizenship and the public sphere. This paper argues that, following the commercialization of the Internet in the mid 1990s, the networked citizen and the virtual communities in which they interact, have been subverted and redefined by corporate interests in ways that reduce the possibility a public sphere emerging in cyberspace. I begin by comparing the planned communities in Irvine, California with graphically intensive, immersive 3D virtual communities (ActiveWorlds Cybertown, and HabboHotel). I discuss how ideas of what constitutes "community" have changed as a result of new communications technologies, and I review early efforts to construct communities online. I then highlight how business texts re-conceptualize online social forums as "communities of commerce." Finally, I examine how Amazon.com utilizes the language and images associated with community and citizenship to create a site that encourage consumption through focused and controlled interactions.