So lately I've been thinking a lot about communities in general and my running community in particular, No surprise since this is the focus of my dissertation. But what is a little surprising is the difficulty I'm having teasing out my community of runners from my other communities, such as what I would consider to be my work, or professional, community.
You see, we are a community inter-weaved within a larger community. I believe this is primarily due to two factors. There is the continued blurring between virtual and terrestrial worlds brought about by social applications, mobile devices, and the seemingly ubiquitous connectivity. We no longer see a difference between the worlds rather they are two sides of the same coin.
Second, and more pertinent to my study, is the fact that online communities are no longer limited to being single application-based. We are dispersed across several applications, Twitter, Facebook, our own blog spaces, and iTunes. This is a recent phenomena. Until a few years ago communities could be safely defined and tied into a single application. This afforded a sense of privacy. Kind of like a separation of church and state. I go to this application to be Jeff the Penn State employee and another application to be Jeff the runner. But now, my running connections flow freely amongst my other connections, be they work, family, friends, school, or other interest groups. I found this also to be true for the others I would consider to be part of my running community.
This raises some challenging concerns. Regarding my research, it makes it more difficult to define my running community for the purpose of my dissertation. Lacking the defined boundary of a single application I'll need to rely on my own constructed definition to frame the subjects. How do I label one as a member of my running community? Is it by role? Are they a fellow runner? I believe that will have to be the key. I can't base it on interaction because of how these relationships overlap. I have non-runner friends who offer support, encouragement, advice on my running and fitness, as well as other things and I have runner friends who play integral roles in other areas of my life.
The second challenge transcends my studly, although it will impact it greatly. That is the need, real or perceived, for self-censorship. Because our discourse is so public and so inter-twined we all self censor out of a feeling of necessity. Will something I say in the context of my running affect my job or my personal relationships? For example, I tend to do my weekday runs over lunch. Does posting them to Twitter and Facebook, including the time of day, impact my co-workers perception of me and the value I bring? Nothing has ever been said to me yet to substantiate my fears but that doesn't quiet the little voice in the back of my mind. Do others censor themselves because of the overlap of communities?
You see, we are a community inter-weaved within a larger community. I believe this is primarily due to two factors. There is the continued blurring between virtual and terrestrial worlds brought about by social applications, mobile devices, and the seemingly ubiquitous connectivity. We no longer see a difference between the worlds rather they are two sides of the same coin.
Second, and more pertinent to my study, is the fact that online communities are no longer limited to being single application-based. We are dispersed across several applications, Twitter, Facebook, our own blog spaces, and iTunes. This is a recent phenomena. Until a few years ago communities could be safely defined and tied into a single application. This afforded a sense of privacy. Kind of like a separation of church and state. I go to this application to be Jeff the Penn State employee and another application to be Jeff the runner. But now, my running connections flow freely amongst my other connections, be they work, family, friends, school, or other interest groups. I found this also to be true for the others I would consider to be part of my running community.
This raises some challenging concerns. Regarding my research, it makes it more difficult to define my running community for the purpose of my dissertation. Lacking the defined boundary of a single application I'll need to rely on my own constructed definition to frame the subjects. How do I label one as a member of my running community? Is it by role? Are they a fellow runner? I believe that will have to be the key. I can't base it on interaction because of how these relationships overlap. I have non-runner friends who offer support, encouragement, advice on my running and fitness, as well as other things and I have runner friends who play integral roles in other areas of my life.
The second challenge transcends my studly, although it will impact it greatly. That is the need, real or perceived, for self-censorship. Because our discourse is so public and so inter-twined we all self censor out of a feeling of necessity. Will something I say in the context of my running affect my job or my personal relationships? For example, I tend to do my weekday runs over lunch. Does posting them to Twitter and Facebook, including the time of day, impact my co-workers perception of me and the value I bring? Nothing has ever been said to me yet to substantiate my fears but that doesn't quiet the little voice in the back of my mind. Do others censor themselves because of the overlap of communities?



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