A community is a group of people who live together, share common facilities and have
something common that binds them. The common thing that unites them could be that they
are related; they work together, or they study together. A community shares some
characteristics, or it has some features that distinguish it from another. A community living
in a given geographical location could be slightly different from another community living
in a different geographical location. Members of a community meet and interact on various
fora. Membership in virtual communities may not have many hurdles as compared to a
face to face community. A virtual community is not a legitimate community. It does not
have characteristics that can make it be labelled a community. Virtual communities are not
real communities.
Face to face communities may be made up of people who are in the same profession.
Examples of such communities will include musicians, actors, teachers and doctors among
others. People who belong to professional communities have a code of regulations and
conduct that guides them. A virtual community is made of members who meet through
social media platforms. These are members who may be very many miles from each other.
Their only means of meeting and interacting is through advancements in information
communication technology. It is not possible to have members of one entity making up a
virtual community. A virtual community is more of an artificial community than a natural
community.
An example of a virtual community is one that is found on social media like Facebook. A
Facebook community uses software to follow each member of a group. One simply opens
an account on Facebook and creates his profile. He then looks for friends whom he can
follow, or they can follow him.
A face to face community is made up of live members. One may argue that virtual
communities do have live members. The fundamental question that we should ask
ourselves is whether members of the virtual communities can be there when one of them
wants them. In most cases, members of a virtual community are very many miles apart.
They are, therefore, unable to be physically present in case one of the members wants
them. Communities found on social sites like Facebook and twitter can only empathise by
posting a condolence message on their walls. There are some virtues that an average
community portrays. Some of these virtues are treating each other with equality, respecting
