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The sun is shining on a beautiful spring day. Everything is copacetic and lovely. The lush grass, the stereotypical chirping birds. This peace and tranquility is not everywhere though. Inside closed walls a war is brewing. Bombs and rockets launch across broken debris as snipers take out the few, unused to controls,that didn't duck behind something.
"Your such an Epic NooB." mutters over the headset as buttons are smashed feverishly to keep the high score,"Of course the internet has changed the world around us-" She pauses for a moment trying to concentrate enough to shoot me on the Television screen while I ask her questions through the tiny mic strapped to my head,"It's just more fun then actually doing something." this was what most people told me while I conducted interviews over the internet. It was just something to do. Something that was shown to them by a friend or through an ad on a boring day. This little thing, which should not have a major effect on anyone let alone the World, has changed society on a epic bases.

Simply put, People want a sense of community.The cyberspace equivalent of the bar at TV's Cheers, where everybody knows your screen name is a comforting mental stimulus. Back in 2003, before Myspace.com and Facebook.com because the juggernauts of internet usage. Internet Communities where small and mainly limited to blogs (Online Journals) and minor online communities.It wasn't until 2003 when The project was overseen by Brad Greenspan (eUniverse's Founder, Chairman, CEO), who managed Chris DeWolfe (MySpace's starting CEO), Josh Berman, Tom Anderson and others launched Myspace did anyone really know about networking.Within a few years The 100 millionth account was created in 2006 making Myspace the most popular social networking site in the United States. Facebook.com soon took over that title in 2008. But what made these sites so popular? What is the draw that brings people in and keeps them tere transfixed to there monitors like mindless zombies?Virtual villages may also find themselves unprepared for the forces they will unleash. Chat rooms, for instance, are often appallingly juvenile, even hostile places, where you're as likely to be insulted as you are to be enlightened. In that environment, advertisers can be subject to ridicule. *"Advertisers worry about the lack of control," admits Bayard Winthrop, vice-president of business development for chat site WebChat Broadcasting System.

When asked, a pool of 12-23 year old people of varying gender and race put "Friends and or Family" as there answer to why they use sites of Social Networking. As MidnightRose5 from Gaiaonline.com, as known as Beth Fugner a student from SCAD, puts it,"I like to know what's going on with everyone I know. And the internet is a great tool to find out how your friends are even when you're apart. It was a big thing for me when I moved to GA for school and all of my friends stayed home. Without the internet I would have lost touch with everyone." This is just proof that social networking is aptly named, Mainly social. The ability for a person to connect with someone the internet is faster and easier then simply over a telephone. All it takes is to sign in and press send to keep relationships alive that would have otherwise been but cliff notes in a persons life. Something to be looked back upon and thought,"I wonder what Happened to what's her face." So what is so drawing about these sites? What has moved people to interact over them instead of picking up a phone once in a while? according to harrold Rheingold, author of A Virtual Communtiy People are just too easy to win over,"People in virtual communities use words on screens to exchange pleasantries and argue, engage in intellectual discourse, conduct commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games, flirt, create a little high art and a lot if idle talk. People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind. You can't kiss anybody and nobody can punch you in the nose, but a lot can happen within those boundaries. To the millions who have been drawn into it, the richness and vitality of computer-linked cultures is attractive, even addictive." This subculture of beings who swarm the net get to live outside themselves for a moment being unafraid to say what they are feeling and or doing.Without all the psychobabble, people are asking to be excepted without the boundaries set upon us by society such as apperance and sex. I myself have a male Avitar or do not state my sex unless asked by someone due to the way people act around different sexes. It's quite the inconvenience to be yourself and taken from face value when you can be the proverbial 'golden goose'. In truth they are doing everything that would do IRL (In real life) minus the availability to use one's body and voice to show emotion. Another Gaian, a term for people who use Gaiaonline.com, shared with me the draw back of not having that physical part of a friendship ~White Dragon Kisara~ said eloquently, "I do seem to get in more fights with my friends due to online chatting. There is no tone on the internet, so it is impossible to discern sarcasm when speaking, and the is no body language to help with interpretation. This leads to multiple misunderstandings, and what would be simple in real life turns into a multi-layered s**t-fest as all my friends start whispering behind each others backs trying to twist online conversations into some sort of metaphor-enriched, black hole of evil insults spewing form the mouth of some ancient goat-demon bent on destroying the self-esteem of hormone-crazed teenage girls."

5OM37hIn' difF3R3N7 4Nd 3Xci7IN' I2 cOmIN' in 2009. CH3CK b4Ck H3r3 pHOR upd473S. Could you read that? I didn't think so. I find it easy with months of practice and growing up with it but Leet (L33t or 31337) also known as Leetspeak is something that someone would need a self updating dictionary for. Almost like a foreign language all it's own, these codes are always updating and changing. Chat or leet speak are just a few of the things that are internet related that are taking root in life outside the net. Talk shows show Youtube Videos in the mornings and people make jokes about internet fads such as ***** bear and "Your bases are belong to us" all of the time. Even our dear President understands some of these jokes that are mostly insider information, replying to a reporter that said,"What if I said your Bases are belong to us?" with "What you say?" and sat down. While I probably have people thinking I'm crazy and not understanding what I just said, It's a true phenomenon. There are people who understand and people who do not depending on the Internet and if they are in certain communnities. For example, if you walk into Hot Topic now and look at the shirts you will see 'Charlie the Unicorn' in all his retarded glory plastered on T-shirts and even wallets. People without realizing do several things that comes from Internet Communities that have become mainstream due to popular media. So is it so odd to say that internet Communities are strictly stuck to the internet when they are a social addiction? As ~White Dragon Kisara~ Also stated"I must say I AM addicted to these communities. As a human, i love drama, so the constant friends updates and the like of "who's dating who" and "who said what" and "my life sucks so i'm going to whine on the internet because I want to feel important and pretend other people give a s**t" thoroughly entertains me. It's sorta like asking a drug addict why they do it, if it destroys their life and their bodies and their minds."Why do you do cocaine?" "Because it gives me pleasure."...Because it gives me pleasure." So it is easy to adjust that the 'real world' and the 'internet' are so intertwined that there is no boundry between them anymore. Both socially and mentally it has become a mainstream media as well as THE mainsteam media for most people, blurring the line between the two.

The internet has broken many bridges when it comes to relations. Myspace,Facebook,Gaiaonline,Neopets,Fanfiction.Deviantart are all forms used as online communities with as many varied reasons for there uses as for why and who they are aimed at.Different virtual communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members. This ranges from adding comments or tags to a blog or message board post to competing against other people in online video games such as MMORPGs. Even creating pages and avitars (Small Personalized people) are common place. There are even online communities for children as young as five years of age. With Webkins flying off the shelf at the store I work at for fifteen dollars a pop you would think they were beanie babies for the next generation. There stuffed animals are cute, I will agree, but they are all holding something more then just a toy. Each animals has a code to go online and enter an interactive world where you take care of the critter and make friends with other critter keepers. This is slightly discerning to parents, while the toy is cute and lovable it allowed children to be online with possible hidden dangers such as predators and older children. This is not a new assurance, with children being abducted due to chat rooms and teens being talked into Suicide thanks to mothers with a fake Myspace page. It's enough to make any parent worry.






Rheingold, H. (2000). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. London: MIT Press.

**http://www.stchas.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=19050820&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Gaiaonline.com Interview

http://www.stchas.edu:2286/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=114&sid=2cdb3084-9ad0-4f75-b769-fb42254ca28c%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=afh&AN=9505051430


http://www.stchas.edu:2286/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=108&sid=68aded0d-e0cf-4b6f-b2ee-df470276eaff%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=afh&AN=16128917

http://www.stchas.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=1490258&site=ehost-live&scope=site

http://www.stchas.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=14750952&site=ehost-live&scope=site