Is there a Facebook community?

[Richard Millington]

I've noticed a few profiles listing Facebook or Twitter as their community.

But are these really communities? Or are these tools that enable communities?

Do you feel part of a community merely by using Facebook?

[Kelda Wallis]

Interesting question.

I wouldn't say that I feel part of a Facebook or Twitter community. I would say that I use these tools to communicate with other people (more often than not, people I already know in the off-line world). For me, especially with regards to FB, it's certainly more of a communication tool.

[Tom Ewing]

I can only really reply with how I use these tools - I think they're quite different.

I screen friends on FB more than I do followers on Twitter - I have to recognise the name at least and have some kind of context for that friendship. But I don't think of FB as a community, or my friends in FB as a community - it's a social graph overlay of real life networks I'm part of (and I'm always a little weirded out when I do a status update on my pop writing, say, and get a reply from an old schoolfriend - FB doesn't respect the compartmentalisation I've built up over the years)

There are communities on Facebook - the groups - but they're mostly very transitory ones, single issue "lite" communities. Those have their own dynamic of course - for some people that kind of thing suits them a lot better than immersion in the kind of online community we dig.

On Twitter, I'm a lot more free-for-all about followers - if someone follows me, and they post in a language I can read and they don't post a ridiculous amount of times, then what the hell, I'll follow them: might learn something interesting! So I think of Twitter as a sort of latent community. I'm more likely to make new connections and forge something new on Twitter than on FB, but I'm not looking for that: I'm just as happy bobbing along in the twitstream.

[Jill Biddington]

Hmmm, Facebook is most definitely a community for me. As a community activist and Union Official, living in a large land mass (Australia) it overcomes distance and allows me to connect with "real" friends that I may not see for months or perhaps years at a time. We do however work together and use the functionality of Facebook to share information, news, stories of actions as well as deal with personal stuff. I have perhaps too many mail lists but it helps me share information to different groups either geographically, industry based, learner groups - oh and I have a family as well - all far flung around the country and internationally also. This community is active around social justice issues, industrial relations, anti racism and so on. Our population is so sparse and concentrated in a few major cities, Facebook is an application that allows us a space where we can at least enjoy the working relationships that we build. Having said that, the need for an independent social networker for community and worker activists was clear when FaceBook knocked off a couple of active members for having too many friends and so we are in transition from Face Book to our own community which has been built on a Elgg site.

Twitter - I have a personal account and manage one for work also. My personal account is locked and I don't accept followers unless I know them or check out that I am not going to receive lots of marketing guff. I am more interested in reading what others are doing and using it to identify information about news that are important to me. The work account feeds out what actions are happening - my personal account receives information. So Twitter is not a community for me - just a tool.

[Becky]

I don't use Facebook much - maybe spend an hour a month there. It's too frantic, too confusing, the layout is bad, lot of "selling" and crazy stuff there. It's not a community for me. I can see how I can use it in the future, so I have a presence there, but it doesn't feel "safe" really. It's a tool and a kind of community, but not one for me personally.

[Mark Schooling]

Funny I put facebook and twitter to that question...paused and erased. I don't consider Facebook or twitter community's, however there are millions of community's within them. I think that is why they are being listed.

[Dominique]

I don't think Facebook is a community, rather a place that provides tools to help you create a community if you want to.

As far as I'm concerned, I have created a group on Facebook, which is an "extension" of my blog about community management (http://www.managerunecommunaute.com).

The blog and the facebook group work quite well together. One feeds the other, and the other way around.

[Richard Millington]

I agree with most of the answers here. I think Facebook/twitter are enablers of communities. Like the way phone, newsletters and meetings enable communities offline.

Or, more literally, like the computer.

You wouldn't say I'm part of the personal computer community...

[John]

Well, to be honest, I think that twitter is quite unique community. I use it every day and find it very useful. Of course it's different from most communities where I participate, but you can easily have any kind of conversation on twitter like any where else. It really depends how youre using it, who youre following, who follows you back.

But then again, people have different thoughts on what is true community. Every one can look at it differently.

PS. I dont use facebook. Shame on me, huh? :)

[Richard Millington]

If we think of Twitter as a fundamental communications tool (facebook too), surely you're no more a member of the Twitter community than you are the Telephone, fax or e-mail community?

[John]

I would not put twitter, tel, fax, email in the same basket. Completely different usage. For example, with most of my twitter friends, I would never use any other way of communication than through twitter. Phone, email, fax are more private, twitter is public. What ever youre talking about on twitter, any body can join with their @reply, advice and give more meaning to conversation.

[Richard Millington]

Interesting thought.

How far can you pull it back though?

Are you part of the technology community? The computer community? The internet community? The social media community? Are you part of the Ning community or the Commania community?

Where do you draw the line and how do you decide to do it? (there isn't a right or wrong answer here, everyone has different ideas).

[John]

That's right there. Here Im part of commania community, not ning as a whole. In twitter Im part of community what is made up from my followers and people who Ive chosen to follow. It doesnt matter for me, how big is twitter, how many people use it etc. I care just about that little bunch of people who are in my circle of contacts.