Online “Communities” are Not Really Communities
I no longer refer to people who watch my Twitch channel as a “community.” I call them viewers or friends, but I don't think it's accurate or helpful to refer to them as a community.
The word community is used in our day to describe people who connect with each other via the internet to form online groups around common interests. But that is not the definition of a community. That is a club. Like a chess club. Or a computer club. And clubs are, by their very nature, exclusive – some more than others, depending on how tightly their leaders and members want to run things.
A community is very different from a club. Clubs can exist within communities. But, at least before the Internet Age, the word community described people with different interests, backgrounds, etc. living and working together despite their differences. As Neil Postman wrote back in 1999:
Think ... of how the words “community” and “conversation” are now employed by those who use the Internet. I have the impression that “community” is now used to mean, simply, people with similar interests, a considerable change from an older meaning: A community is made up of people who may not have similar interests, but who must negotiate and resolve their differences for the sake of social harmony. Tocqueville used the phrase “an ethic of reciprocity” to delineate what is at the heart of community life. What has that to do with “a community” of Internet users? As for “conversation,” two (or more) people typing messages to each other are engaged in an activity quite different from what is usually called a conversation. To call messages that lack the presence of the human voice and human faces a “conversation” seems odd to me. (Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century, p. 53)
We have been seeking human connection, belonging, and validation online in places like social media platforms, instant messaging groups, forums, etc. when they can provide none of these things in a deeply meaningful way.
A group of fans of a Twitch streamer or channel is not a community. It's a fan club. Calling them “communities” gives us the wrong idea of what it really means to be a community.
You will find more fulfillment and purpose by seeking to build and strengthen real-life communities in your family, neighborhood, and city than you ever can online.
Internet-based tools can help strengthen and connect real-life communities, but they can never replace those communities.