Week 3

 

This week in class we learned about a sense of community. More importantly we looked at the different ways that sense of community is defined. Seymour Sarason described this phenomenon as the, “perception of having similarity to others (Sarason, 1974, p.157).” While McMillan and Chavis defined the sense of community into four parts comprised of: membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection. These four parts defined create a better idea of what is really being talked about with a sense of community. Needs fulfillment is defined as an individual getting what they need from a community. Influence explains how individuals feel about the other members in their community and if they are capable of solving problems. Membership refers to the individual being able to identify the majority of people in their community. Shared emotional connection is explained as the bond and emotional connection that the individual feels to other community members.

Understanding all the subparts to the phrase, sense of community, allows you to be able to understand the phrase as a whole. With a sense of community the individual needs to feel as if they are connected to that group which means that they know people and people know them. They are able to interact with each other and get along. They should have some sort of emotional tie or bond to these people; this allows them to establish their membership with the community. With a sense of community the individual also has to feel like the people in their community will help them especially with problem solving as well as an overall feeling of fulfillment of getting whatever they may need from that specific community. All of these factors contribute to the individual feeling as if they have a sense of community helping them belong and contribute.

Additionally, in groups we completed our own websites that deal with the sense of an online community relating to spreadable content of our choosing. My group chose the mishap of the Miss Universe Pageant and how the event became to be an overnight sensation from the help of the online communities. With this we believe that more people continue to contribute to creating spreadable content online when they know that their online counterparts support them with the sense of community. Our website can be found here.