Goodness Gracious, Groups Galore!!

This is my second response paper for my Internet and America class.

Are you part of more groups now, or fewer? What is the nature of your participation in these groups? Do you feel closer to others who are members of your groups, or more distant? Why? What sorts of things does the internet allow your groups to do that might not have been possible without it? Or, is there no change at all, with the internet having no real effect on the way you are socially engaged with others?


Off the top of my head I can think of 80 total groups that I am a part of, 52 of which are Facebook groups. The groups that I am a member of that are online groups number around 49. They include being a member of Facebook, the various Facebook groups I am part of and MySpace. The majority of the Facebook groups I have joined have been just for fun and do not hold much importance in my life. For example, a couple of the groups I am a member of are: “If you remember this you grew up in the 90’s”, “The domino effect” and a few groups that friends made for projects they had to do in a class at one point. There are a few groups that I have joined that have some sort of meaning to me. Some of them are fan pages of bands, television shows I enjoy or causes that I strongly believe in.

Since coming to college and being online more than I was in high school I am sure that I have become a part of more groups, both online and offline. I have become a part of a new group of friends, I have become a leading figure in my taekwondo club and have joined two academic groups based on my major (history) and minor (communication studies). I have also joined the group of students who call Luther College home as well as the group of seniors who will be graduating this May.

When I am with my group of friends that live with me in my cluster, I feel as if we are a family and a support network for each other. I feel very close to these people, more so than my other groups of friends at Luther, with one exception (which I will discuss later). We do not use the internet to communicate with each other except when we are on breaks. If we use an instant messaging server to talk to each other while classes are in session we tend to make fun of the person who initiated the conversation because we are in such a close proximity to each other. “Dude, I’M TWO DOORS AWAY FROM YOU!!” I do not believe that the internet allows us to do things we wouldn’t be able to do with each other since we are almost always within yelling distance of each other.

In the last paragraph I mentioned an exception to my group of friends I live with. The group that I feel closest to on campus is made up of the only other two people on campus from my high school. I have known these two girls since I moved to Byron in fifth grade. The internet has helped us stay maintain some contact with each other since we no longer live in the same building. During our junior year one of the girls lived in the same cluster as I did. One of the girls has an AOL Instant Messenger screen name, but is never on it anymore, and the other does not have a screen name. If I want to talk to them I have to go on Facebook chat or Google chat. I think that if we did not have these mediums of communication we would not stay in contact as much as we do, but we would still stay in continuous contact and meet up with each other.

As I mentioned earlier I am in about 50 groups on Facebook, many of which are just mindless groups and I do not have any participation in these groups other than being just another member. There are other groups that I have joined because I enjoy what or who they represent. I am a member of the “Friends of the Boundary Waters” and “Boundary Waters Enthusiasts” groups. I do not post on their walls a lot but I do try to be an active member in the groups. One of my favorite summer activities is an annual trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) with my high school buddies. We all enjoy our time spent in the wilderness and would hate to see it ruined. I found these two groups and liked what I saw on their pages. The “Friends” group sends the members updates and newsletters about what is going on in the BWCA. Some of their newsletters have been about gatherings to raise money for various aspects of upkeep in the BWCA. Unfortunately I have not been able to make them because they are usually in Ely, MN on weekdays and that’s a long drive from Decorah, especially during school! I have invited all of the people I have traveled with up there to join the group, which they have. We all talk about what is going on up there and on the site when we are all together.

Another group I belong to is for the show “No Reservations” which is a show on the Travel Channel about a New York chef who travels around the world and looks at different food in various cultures. Each week during the season I receive notifications about what is going to be featured on the next episode. The notifications include a text description along with a short video clip. I do not post very often on the wall because I use this group to stay caught up with what is going on with the show.

The internet has helped the three previous groups reach a wide range of fans and keep them updated. It has enabled them to gather people for fundraising events (BWCA groups) and keep people updated on what the crazy host will do for his next episode. Because these two groups are for fans and enthusiasts of the things represented, I do not feel close to any of the members, except for the ones I invited myself. I do not feel close to them because they are from all over the world and the groups have about 1,000 fans each which makes it hard for anyone to be close to that many people at one time.