th
ursday, March 1,2001
science
lllli*
Page 5A
THE BATTALION
iIy Stuart Hutson
rc
m&Battalion
I ^ an average student to give an example of a com-
tunity and his or her response is likely to be something
imilar to a college or a small town.
IOC. /li T exas A&M sociology professor Sara Gaston for
tsJ) Him example of a community, and her response will be a
mall group between 300 and 500 people who interact,
tudent’s co. ot at their local market or campus cafeteria, but at a lo-
but course' al hangout known as the Internet.
-equiredtod Sociologists define a community as a group of people
s must take ^ho share a common sense of identity and interact with one
■ work inik notlier on a sustained basis. Since its 1997 start-up as a
o research liscjussion forum about the television series “Buffy, the
etsthepnvi ^ripire Slayer,” an electronic bulletin board known as
underarad Bronze has developed into the bustling center of a
aduatestu. immunity whose residents boast IP addresses instead
idies here \ ^ s l reet numbers.
t first butii ^hile this lack of a real, geographical location may make
1 (1| . ( j llv ,ome people question the Bronze’s stake as a community, it
li'diier St ^ ls un '9 ue environment which intrigues Gaston,
mr lo id ■ [Many people say that the Internet only depersonal-
,l ' K ' zes human interactions,” she said. "But one thing the
1 ’ Bronze and the community that has formed around it
1 iave proven is that it can do the exact opposite. People,
I ! csp ! m wrdless of where they are or who they are, can get to-
II laR 1 Vi Jether and form a unique type of community where in-
Deuenhar;
eractions, even though mostly in text form, are just as
: " esl l * l! ' mportant as anywhere else.”
npo
- en unc * er ; [ I’The importance of these interactions seperates the cy-
idnate con )er community of the Bronze from most other boards or
s-structure ;hat rooms.
nt iapk-f fTh\s ksu’t an environment where there will be com-
" You are ylejely different people just showing up every day to talk
ater respor iust about the show,” Gaston said. “Some people do, but
the work, here are that group who have settled in and made it their
ihardt said place. Their lives have been altered by this environment,
guided a fhey are the community.”
apleting tt a community, they share events. Today, an all-
re oft&ea lay baby shower is being thrown on the Bronze for
oem puttinrthe first baby born to a couple who met through the
waitatioik ; y bc r community,
ing in sell
s discussic:
(Hatching blood types
ergracMe
ents arefeil:HGaston, herself an admitted addict to the adventures
am of infiof everyone’s favorite blond beasty slayer, became in
then tested volved with the board after the first time it was adver
legenhani! tised during the television show,
ing the er, “[The show] became sort of a ritual for me and I
uate stud; pulled my family into it,” she said. “My dad came home
cork loads one day and said, T just want you to know that, in front
from at* of ; a group of grown men, I just checked my watch and
ht classest()3®d that I had to get home to watch ‘Buffy.’ ’
■Gaston originally used the Bronze to talk
iany yean Wfh others who enjoyed the show as much
s been luck: as s he does, but she quickly real-
. However,■fd that, beneath the superficial
idents. conversation revolving around
/ho havei f he show, lay a complex network
fl/’DegeiiPptetionships, social cliques and
g s, grantm hierarchies of popularity.
■ “It was really kind of ironic
lependentJMt the subject matter that was of-
had 7,32k ten discussed revolved around
7 students' w hat high school was like (the
font the 0|how was set at a high school),”-
A&jq Gaston said. “All the while, the re
lationships and interactions that
were going on were very similar to
|that which you may find in a high
/ school setting.”
■ Gaston estimates that the average
nmVU , age of the members is 26 with
women constituting 60 percent to 70
Brcent of the group.
Iicrodekm 1 “The women are
crru definitely the domi-
3MAN Stf-v | , ,,
|imt speakers m the group,
‘ m s|e said. “This is not unusual for a so-
ROPEAsf*cial organization like a fan group, but it is
unusual on the Internet — especially when
the current statistics say that the majority'of
clmputers are owned by males.”
I Gaston said the majority of residents in the cyber
community are not extraordinarily computer savvy.
1 “Most of the people are not tech-heads,” she
DDV
Elm Ave,
Bryan
said. “These are people who are just using tools that
already exist to communicate with those who havela
common interest.”
The members may not be computer geeks, Gaston
said, but difficulties with fitting in while in high school
is a common experience of the residents.
“A main theme of the show was how much of a hell
high school can be.... I mean the school actually sits over
a hell mouth — that’s a metaphor,” she said. “A lot of the
people in the community can relate to that. It makes the
show entertaining, but it also give the members of the
community a little bit more of a common background.”
The conversation of the community, however, is not
limited to discussing the television series.
“There will be days where the show isn’t mentioned
at all,” she said. “All you will see is just random conver
sations about a variety of real-life topics. In fact, the
biggest complaint from people new to the board is that
no one is talking about the show.”
Uirtual reality?
Gaston said that, while many people may consider
conversing on the Internet impersonal and superficial,
the members of the cyber community consider it as much
of an interactive and real experience as talking to some
one in person.
“Some people call this a form of virtual reality,” she
said. “But for these people, it is not a virtual atmosphere.
It is talking to another person, except in a textual envi
ronment like this, language is behavior. How you are go
ing to be judged is based upon your textual skills, but, at
the same time, there is still that feeling of somehow be
ing removed that can allow one to open up and say things
that you wouldn’t normally say to someone’s face.”
Capital letters mean shouting and words in italics de
pict virtual actions being performed, such as laughing or
virtually clapping.
“Sometimes I’ll log on and they will be playing a vir
tual game of Calvin ball, like the game Calvin and
Hobbes played in the comic strip,” she said.
Just because a level of intensity similar to personal in
teraction can be reached via Internet does not mean that
members of the community do not meet face to face.
Gaston said that one of the unique aspects of this cy
ber community is that group outings are often planned in
places such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas so that the
community can gather and talk in person, sometimes
drawing people from as far away as Germany and Eng
land. Members who live close to one another of
ten get together as well.
This is how the couple who are currently
enjoying a baby shower met.
“Is face-to-face interaction an essential
component for a community? I don’t have an
answer for that question yet,” Gaston said.
“But there are many who haven’t met who
are participating in this social ritual of-a
baby shower.’ I see that and say,
‘that’s a community.’
“You can laugh at these people
and make fun of the level of interest
and intensity that they put into this
community, but if you do, you also
have to make fun of your mother )s
garden club or your friend’s weekly
Shakespeare meeting. To these peo
ple, this is just as substantial of an in
teraction.”
ft
Self-policing
Gaston said that, in this communi
ty where language is behavior, a spe
cial set of social rules apply, such |s
limiting postings to the
Bronze to four an hour
and refraining from
harassing language.!
“The Webmasters are not the ones thgt
enforce the standards; it is the members of
the community that do the enforcing,” she
said. “There was a period of time when *a
flood of vulgar comments would start to flootl
in. This happened at the same time every day.
“The members traced the messages to a board
ing school in England, and a member near the
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