Also, my new rule of the internet:

[glowingfish]

"Does this content or interaction in anyway contribute to a real sense of community?"

Basically, I realized that some internet interactions, however tenuously, are related to a real sense of community. That doesn't mean the community ever has to happen in the real world (although many times it can lead to that), but that the content or interaction or whatever will somehow foster or develop a real sense of shared values or interests. As opposed to being just stimulation meant to get people through 5 more minutes, even if that is by making them feel enraged.

That is one reason I signed off of Facebook a few weeks ago, and have been posting here. I think, however indirectly it might be, that this place does have a real sense of community.

Comments

[coffeetime]

I really prefer the longer form here, because it gives readers/friends a chance to slow down and think, and to respond thoughtfully, and the connections are meaningful. I suppose some people do a long Facebook post - but a lot of the forwarded/screenshot posts I see are like "OMG THIS OUTRAGEOUS THING!!!*emojis*" and a lot of like-minded one- or two-word comments below. And I've been on Instagram since it was not so horrible (now it is), and the interactions there are so ephemeral, like a couple of words and then it's all back in the void. Here, it's TEXT, and the comments are whole conversations. Like LJ was, back in aughts.

[glowingfish]

Yep, that was my experience on Facebook. Actually, the precipitating event that made me leave this time (and I have been off of Facebook a lot, over the years) was that I was sharing a meme with a transit community---okay, and I was trying to poke them a little, but I was surprised by how vehement it was.
So the reason I joined the group was I thought it might be a fun community to trade experiences because we are out here doing similar things. Even if it just an online exchange of stories about riding trains, I felt maybe it could somehow foster a real sense of community. ("Oh this person went out and did this, that makes me want to go out and do something similar this weekend!") But I realized that there was no real sense of community going on there, just basically a cycle of stimulation.