Is Virtual Community Real Community?

           

       During the advent of the online world, distinctions between a real and a virtual community had emerged. However, only those people who are concerned with the distinction are the people who knew what social media is all about, nonetheless, they don’t care. They are so much concerned about what is real and what is not. In one of the past days, as I read an article about virtual and physical world it was not any more concerned about what is real and what is not rather they were much concerned with how online activities help develop communities and that what makes it real. Believing that virtual community is real can make things more possible by way of giving solutions to problem which are not solved by real communities, the Church for example. Building communities by way of online networking can really create communities but my question is, can we really have the complete encounter with those people whom we met in the internet? Do we really have the glance of their whole being? I don’t agree with the article inasmuch as virtual world can’t compare to a physical world. Why? It is because in a physical world “PHYSICAL PRESENCE” is a GIFT!

            Physical presence can make us complete in a sense that when we see physically the person whom we consider as our inmost friend we gain confidence and we feel comfortable. During meetings and informal gatherings it is quite very soothing to be in companion with our circle of members while looking at their faces. Although there are really some unresolved problems in the physical world which the virtual world can offer solutions, still physical presence makes our experience complete. Just as what the Father did to His son who came down from heaven and was incarnated to be in union with us. Jesus came down from heaven to share with our humanity. The more we see the physical presence of a person the more we get to know him and the more we get ignited with him. It is a mystery that whenever we are in front or in contact with a person physically we feel something complete and satisfied. Unlike in a virtual world it is like just something that we can see, hear and talk to. For me, touching lives of others is only possible when we touch their hands physically. In other words, touching people, changing lives.

            Haven’t you come to think that what if one day our internet connections will all be lost and we have nothing to do with such? All things here on earth are just finite, that is why I come up with a question like that. Now, if things are finite it is but close to the possibility that online world will vanish. Who knows in the future, with the abuses and all the misuse of the internet it might happen. And if really time will come that our connections will be lost, how will we do with our virtual communities? Can it still survive? Without electricity? Can we still depend on such? I think, it is still debatable but my point is that, I can accept that virtual world can’t be as real as the physical world. Virtual world is a real world, however, it is a world which is digital and ephemeral.