New Community Dynamics: Community Management in the Digital Era
This article was originally published on December 16, 2024 in the New Community Dynamics Library on Medium.
The current era marks a transformative moment for virtual communities and social technology sciences, wherein critical aspects of our lives—such as job searching, forming lasting relationships, and resource distribution—rely heavily on our ability to navigate social technologies effectively. As social platforms emerge as powerful organizing forces, they increasingly overshadow the influence of traditional governments and economies, underscoring their pivotal role in shaping modern society.
As more and more of our activities occur in groups that congregate on virtual platforms, understanding new community dynamics both on and offline has become an area that warrants much greater focus in both academia and professional practice. Specifically, the conditions of virtual communities differ from those of every other type of community in human history. Groups of participants are radically intermixed by algorithms. Who gets machine-recruited to participate is based on snippets of behavior rather than large qualifiers such as geolocation, school, or religion. Initial access to platforms is further determined by class due to the cost of technological tools necessary for onboarding users, most notably smartphones and personal computers, as well as familiarity with the languages that these tools support, with English being the primary language for communication. Virtual communities pose numerous new community management challenges, such as a lack of cohesion, the exoticness of identity, and online safety concerns.
Communities today resemble galaxies that arise within the planet across networks of electricity moving at the speed of thought.
Although the field is undergoing a significant growth spurt, it is still imperative to operate from a stable and organized framework, even if that framework requires regular updates. This situation reminds me of the field of medicine, where medical researchers regularly publish manuals and codes to help practitioners align on courses of action and communicate effectively among different types of specialists working together to meet a wide variety of patient needs. While a cardiologist does not need to work hand in hand with an immunologist, they both rely on congruent knowledge about the human circulatory system. Such foundations allow a baseline quality of care to be provided, while the field continues to expand.
Community Management is already dynamic and interdisciplinary field that captures the complexities of human relations within groups. Reducing this field—as some job descriptions for “skilled community managers” tend to do—to mere communications, hospitality, or coordination, is a significant understatement. This field draws on insights from across social sciences, such as McMillan and Chavis’ “Sense of Community” or Abraham Maslow’s Humanist Motivational Theory, among others. Effective Community Management employs both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to undertand audiences and their movements clearly. The output of well-managed communities working together effectively can have impacts that resonate across natural, social, economic, political, and symbolic realms.
New Community Dynamics Library
If you have enjoyed reading the thoughts here on new community dynamics, you may want to visit the full library on Medium, where we collect research and essays that our community considers required reading for those involved in Community Management. New Community Dynamics is a dedicated space for developing new practical frameworks that assist individuals in collaborating on issues of community management within their organizations, whether private or public. We strive to feature a new author each month to share different perspectives that can help readers expand their frame of reference, particularly those that challenge us to rethink how access and inclusion manifest in digital environments. Additionally, this library is where you can glimpse ongoing research on an exciting new model, the Adaptive Design Mechanism (ADM). ADM is a long-term project aimed at developing a new theory that re-situates our understanding of natural human adaptation in virtual environments.
Is that all? Yes, for now. We will be back soon with your next article.
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