How do You Define Community?

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March 15th, 2009

community

I was watching Fox News the other day, I don’t remember what show it was but the commentator was talking about community.  He said that a community revolved around his neighbors and people that resided within a certain proximity to his physical location.  According to Wikipedia: “Traditionally a ‘community’ has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location.”  This made me think about all of the people that I’m connected with online and all of my readers/friends.  I haven’t met most of you and we definitely don’t reside in the same physical location, but I definitely still consider us a community.

I think it’s time we move away from defining a community as anything having to do with a physical presence at all.  Sure that can be a factor, but in my mind a community is a collection or group of people that interact and share something in common.  A community is actually best defined by the person being associated with a particular community.  For example, I may be associated with the nob hill community in san francisco, however, if you were to ask me if I feel like a part of the community, I would say “no,” at least not yet.

The word “interaction” is also crucial in defining a community.  I don’t think it’s right to classify a group of people who happen to be living next to each other as a community unless they actually interact with one another and act as a community.  By the same token I wouldn’t say that just because I have 2,500+ twitter followers that they are all a part of my community.  As a default they are a part of my “twitter” community but there are still many people from those 2,500 that I have yet to interact with.  I suppose it’s a bit of a tricky subject because I have to assume that all 2,500+ people are reading my tweets and following my conversations, so technically that is a form of interaction, but I am just not aware of it.

Perhaps the definition of a community can be something as simple as:

“A collection or group of people who have something in common and interact?”

How do you define “community?”

TAGS: define community, definition community
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 15th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • sc984
    Yh! I think the physical sense of community has very little to do with a real community!
  • What an interesting question, and so appropriate for this age we live in. I feel far more connected to the people I meet online and share ideas with through social media than I do to the people who happen to occupy the houses close to mine. I don't know their names, I don't know what work they do...I know some of them drive too fast, but I know nothing of substance about them. I would not describe this neighborhood as my community. I think "community" implies mutual support and contribution to a goal outside your own self interest. That gets at your idea of "interaction" -- a community is not passive, it's active. On think you're spot on in your interpretation and I'm using a lot of words to say that I agree. Thanks for raising the question. Keep up the great thinking.
  • I like your answer at the end. A group of people who have a common interest and interact.
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