Virtual Community and Real Community

Is virtual community a real community? The virtual community is generated by a computer to stimulate real objects and activities while real community is something factual which actually exists and is not imagined and invented. For me, virtual community can be an instrument to become real community. In the virtual world we communicate other people whom we do not really know. That’s why in doing cyberspace let’s purify our intentions. Our end must be good. There must be a sense of communion, and it would be a tool for evangelization. So that virtual community would somehow become a real community.

Nowadays, we are living this overarching world of social media. And because of the social media, the world is getting smaller and smaller precisely because we can easily communicate to those people who are far from us. Social media is very substantial in spreading messages and information to other people especially news. But the risk of social media is that if our motive or intention is bad it would be very dangerous. For instance, in Facebook, if we have an enemy, we can post anything against that person and upload it to the internet. It is very less reflective. We never care the feelings of other people. What we do is post and post against him/her. And this is the great danger of social media, we become less reflective and less responsible. That’s why in engaging social media our intention must be for the good of all.

Nevertheless, Social media involves communion or communication. And social media is a good device for communication. Since we want to connect and belong to one another, to share our feelings and thoughts, then social media is very useful. For example, during the time when the Philippines was hit by the typhoon Yolanda. Social media was very important in spreading information in asking help for the victims. And I think through that catastrophe, social media is very much helpful. And it was already a sign that virtual community has the chance to become a real community. Therefore, it is really possible that virtual community becomes real community.

In the Church, social media is also a good tool for evangelization. We must be a cyber-evangelizers in this cyber phenomenon. As online communities of faith, we must be a good example and an inspiration to other people. We must not isolate users, rather we must connect and we must acknowledge every user that they are part of a real community. And it will not stop there because whatever begins on social media does not stay on social media alone. Social media could be a normative tool for communication whom most of the people meet each other in a physical environment. And it simply begins with social communication.

In a nutshell, social media can be a substantial tool to bring out virtual community into real community as long as there is communication between different people or groups. We must also be responsible in using social media. And let’s also use social media for evangelization.