The Emergence of Community in Computer-Mediated Communication – Nancy K. Baym

Details

Photo

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Name

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Year

1995

Type

Journal article

Core idea

People in early online forums developed real, meaningful communities with norms, rituals and relationships, not just disembodied text.

How I use it

As my polite way of saying “no, online community did not begin with Facebook” whenever someone’s timeline starts in 2004.

My take

Feels almost cosy now—Usenet drama instead of TikTok pile-ons—but the analytic toolkit for studying digital community still holds up.