Earlier I shared about Communion and Virtual Communities. In a continuing reflection about the topic I ran across this article by Where I go to geek it up… entitled The Function of Religion in MMORPGs.
People who take the Internet less seriously often question whether a community can exist in a place that itself does not exist. Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community, has an answer:
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. (Rheingold)
Geographical factors are no longer the only determinants in the creation of communities. People do not form a community merely because they live in a common locale. Identifying common interests is a way of finding the elements that bind isolated individuals into a community. Communities are formed out of necessity – people united for a common need or goal. Players are set against dragons, wars, and death, and they persevere. While many may scoff at the idea of both children and adults playing in a world of fantasy, the online community fulfills a basic need for some – to feel that they belong. Players in an online game gain the feeling of being involved in something bigger than themselves. Part of a community in which they can live a different life and meet different people. Virtual intimacy may take time, but strong bonds can be formed without a single “real-life” glance. Having a system of religion inside of the game serves to reinforce this sense of community through group community actions and rituals, such as religious services and prayer, also adding a degree of realism to a medieval (“Dark Ages”) style of game, which mimics a time in which religion played a greater role in the lives and destinies of humanity. These sorts of phenomena along with others have captivated various scholarly spheres.
Looking at the scholarship it becomes apparent that virtual communities are defined as places with socially constituted norms, values, and expectations. “Text serves as the lifeblood of these electronic places, conveying the ideas and feelings of participants that lead to the growth and evolution of a community or to its demise.” But there are challenges to virtual communities — similar to flesh and blood communities. “In the course of interaction, virtual communities are confronted with a series of challenges brought about not only by the subjects they discuss, but also by limitations and complexities of the technology through which they must interact, as well as by the texts that they write, read, and interpret. “
So is the church as a community one that is only defined as a place with “socially constituted norms, values, and expectations” or is there more to a faith community? Was it Luther that said that church was the place where the Word was preached and the sacraments were offered?
My complaint with equating virtual communities with ‘flesh-and-blood’ communities is that there is no gauge for authenticity and truth telling. Many of us are familiar with the urban legend about the internet being filled with exponentially more men than women — and never believe a person’s description of themselves on the net. Everyone is young, fit, muscular, intelligent, and hip. Taking one look at the flesh-and-blood church community I serve — I am not sure any of us are any of those things!
How does one have honest, authentic community in an environment that is constructed as entertainment and escape? Whether it is chat rooms, bulletin boards, or MMORPGs there is a dynamic in virtual spaces that is very similar to the ’suspension of disbelief’ that is utilized by moviemakers, storytellers, and video game makers. Again — if Christ calls me to die to self — which self is the virtual internt Christian called to die to.. the profile on blogger? the email address at AOL.com? or the public weblogger self?
Being a genxer I am very distrusting of institutions. Being a postmodern I am very suspicious of narratives that can become oppressive — and that morph into a metanarrative that dominates a culture or community. Pick any virtual space and tell me there is no meta-narrative. Pick any video game - online or not — and tell me there is not a designated main story line that determines and predicts outcomes. How is it possible to say that a faith community is present — when people logon for the express purpose of experiencing something that they can’t, shouldn’t, or aren’t allowed to experience in their own geographic community.
The rise of internet pornography addictions is a great example of the challenge of authenticity in virtual communities. As a pastoral counselor in training I hear and see more cases of individuals that have had their lives possessed by internet porn. Most are not predators, a majority do nothing more than view free content. But all admit that they would never purchase, visit a brick and mortar store, or even consider an extra-marital affair. But all are obsessed and controlled by the access and secrecy they can have to explicit material on the internet. And — most are affiliated with geographic, flesh-and-blood Christian communities.
For some reason young Christian men addicted to internet porn have created a split in their personality. They are doing things online that they would never admit to, that they would never do off line, and that their flesh-and-blood community would find incongruent with their non-internet personalities. For this reason explicitly - I find virtual communities a challenge. In a world that is easily fractured by the private/public spit of faith life — we have no knowledge that someone is who they say they are.
In the early church those interested in joining the church were required to particpate in a mentoring process that could take as long as three years. Most would not be baptized, nor would they be able to partake of the eucharistic meal until they completed the process of confirmation. Vestiges of this process are still a part of the Roman Catholic church’s polity. It is my guess that virtual religious communities have no way of establishing membership criteria, assessing transformation, nor measuring giftedness.
I still have to say — and I may be wrong - that religious virtual communities don’t measure up. In the same way that playing Grand Theft Auto the video game and being a gangbanger aren’t the same thing - one is only the shadow of the other. I would love to have someone convince me otherwise.
For further reading see Inscription and interpretation of text: a cultural hermeneutic examination of virtual community.
