Why Digital Communities are so Fragile
Think back over the years you’ve been active online, either through social media, forums or even chat groups on your smartphone or tablet or through gaming platforms. How many groups do you belong to on LinkedIn or Facebook (if you still use Facebook?) or perhaps online forums you’ve participated in. Perhaps there’s a few you’re active in now? Maybe there’s a few that you’ve been fairly active on for several years? If you are active in a group online past a year, you’re in a very small minority. Over two years? Smaller still.
As a digital (cultural) anthropologist, I’ve been researching online communities and digital products for UX strategies and UX research for well over a decade with an emphasis on human culture and behaviours online. Over the years I’ve spoken with several hundred people around the use of social media and participating in online group activities. All a part of what is known as “netnography” which is the anthropological research process derived from ethnography. And while we may as individuals, stay active online over decades, well, at least two for most people, how we engage constantly changes.
In the real world, our social behaviours and participation in groups also changes throughout our lives. The organisations we belong to also change as we live our lives. It’s hard to play youth soccer or junior hockey leagues in your thirties. Kind of unfair to the kids. As we enter our adult years, we may have organisations we will belong to for most of our lives; fraternities and sororities, Lion’s Club, Rotary Club, religious organisations etc. There are organisations where we will spend some time, perhaps a few years, then as our interests change, we move on.
With real world organisations however, we tend to spend a lot more time with them and we will form relationships with others that may last several decades or our entire lives. But this is very rare when it comes to online groups and communities. The average length of time we will be active in an online community is about six moths. Why is this?
Human brains aren’t wired to form long-term relationships or participate in digital cultures for extended periods as they have little to hold us there. Over 90% of our communication with one another is nonverbal. The expression on our face, hand gestures, subtle shifts of the body. The culture in which we live adds another layer of context to how we form relationships, as well as the environment we are in or sometimes, environments and shared experiences. When we do activities in the real world such as playing on a sports team, hiking groups, a choir, drama clubs, hobby club, we work together and share experiences that we will later reminisce about at a social gathering. This reinforces social bonds and cultural links as well as rituals for our daily lives. Sharing these experiences in digital environments is limited in terms of the social rewards our brains seek. Bonds of reinforcement are hard to maintain.
Online communities are very limited in the way communication happens. In terms of of engagement it is a 2D environment, input is via a keyboard with text, images or video and audio. Expression is most often through emoji’s or stating an emotion textually. Online communities, like real-world ones, rely on some form of reciprocity as well. For example, in the real world, if a neighbour brings you some food, a week or two later, you will bring them some food. In online communities, information exchange is the system of reciprocity. Members can’t always sustain this activity and is a major reason they slow and then quit their activities in a group.
Online communities that do tend to have longer term members are those that have a real world connection, such as hobby groups where they are able to meet in the real world. The online community acts as a way of organising and communicating.
Promoters of the metaverse are quick to proclaim that it will bring humans closer. It will not. communities in the metaverse will be as amorphous as current ones. There may be core participants, but human brains aren’t wired to form relationships in the way technologists think. Nor can true, lasting cultures be formed. The mechanisms that create a culture can’t be fully replicated in a digital environment.
Online communities can and do deliver great value to individuals and groups. They are becoming a key part of our social fabric as our digital and physical worlds come closer together. But the bonds and depths of cultures that we form in the real world can’t be fully replicated in a digital world. Especially when you have to put on big clunky goggles, gloves and such. They will be fun, there will be some fascinating and amazing innovations, but we won’t be fully human in a purely digital world. That requires genetic adaptation and rewiring our brains.
