community

Community to me is the people I share beliefs, interests, likes and have common vested interests. They are also about human interaction and building and maintaining personnel relationships. Some religious and social clubs can be very exclusive and secretive communities that can be hundreds of years old.
Communities in the modern world can range from communities of practice that large companies use to share best practices, protocols and up to date information about the company via the internet. There are tons of gaming communities where gamers from around the world can compete and work towards a common goal in many different gaming systems. In order for any community to survive it must bind individuals together in some pursuit of a common interest or goal. Today people can be involved in many different communities and never see or have any face to face contact with its members. This lack of physical contact seems to build bonds that can easily be broken or swayed. In small town communities usually everyone becomes part of your extended family and individuals have many people they can turn to for support. Today’s communities tend to lack loyalty and put individual needs before the group.
Social networking sites have opened the world to invite members to join communities around the world with the click of a mouse. While this may be lacking the intimacy of face to face interaction members can now explore the world and join communities that would have been impossible just 10 years ago.