We need a common goal to create community. The good news is that we have lots of common goals. When I taught in Second Life I became part of an extraordinarily close community who worked to promote VW teaching. I never met most of those people, but I still feel connected, ten years later.
Now I live in a small city of 30,000. I know whose dog has just died, who is cheating on her husband. We’re all worried about what will happen to the kids. A different set of goals, flesh-and-blood connections, but I can’t say those connections are any stronger than the ones I formed in SL.
We need a common goal to create community. The good news is that we have lots of common goals. When I taught in Second Life I became part of an extraordinarily close community who worked to promote VW teaching. I never met most of those people, but I still feel connected, ten years later.
Now I live in a small city of 30,000. I know whose dog has just died, who is cheating on her husband. We’re all worried about what will happen to the kids. A different set of goals, flesh-and-blood connections, but I can’t say those connections are any stronger than the ones I formed in SL.