Communication and Community

During the Facebook session of the Penn State Teaching and Learning Symposium, the fascination with Facebook and the desire to communicate intrigued me. I began to think about how we have previously defined community, and I think that the definition needs to include communication. In a community, you are constantly communicating both verbally and nonverbally. You are confirming and rejecting ideas, thoughts, perceptions, and actions. Communication is essential in a community (I think). From there, my thoughts wandered into whether communication was innate. After all groups of animals, be it herds of cattle, flocks of geese, schools of fish, and even communities of people, all have to communicate in order to function and survive. The rise in popularity of the social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc.) confirmed my thoughts about our natural desires to communicate with others and create community.