Those words have become a family code for the way my virtual community has infiltrated our real world. My seven-year-old daughter knows that her father congregates with a family of invisible friends who seem to gather in his computer. Sometimes he talks to them, even if nobody else can see them. And she knows that these invisible friends sometimes show up in the flesh, materializing from the next block or the other side of the planet.
The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier
Howard Rheingold tours the 'virtual community' of online networking.Howard Rheingold has been called the First Citizen of the Internet. In this book he tou
Why Are There No Online Spaces For Kids Anymore?
The virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier
Howard Rheingold tours the "virtual community" of onlin…
Erlend Sogge Heggen (@erlend.sh)
1. solitude: single-player game loop 2. bottomlessness: infinite scroll 3. speed: instant delivery/gratification 4. teasing: generally satisfactory, never perfect; “maybe the next one is exactly what I want” ↘️ quoting NPR (@npr.org): Taken together, these four features can create a trancelike state that can keep us stuck on social media apps or video games for hours. Children are particularly vulnerable. n.pr/4mH6i6s
What Good Is ‘Community’ When Someone Else Makes All the Rules? (Published 2018)
Life online can offer us a sense of belonging in any number of virtual villages. But the power to control those spaces isn’t very communal at all.
Meta’s ‘Digital Companions’ Will Talk Sex With Users—Even Children
Chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in ‘romantic role-play’ that can turn explicit. Some people inside the company are concerned.
VRC List - Find VRChat Worlds, Communities and Events
Find, favorite, vote and join on VRChat worlds, communities and events
Lonelygirl15: how one mysterious vlogger changed the internet
Bree was a funny, friendly 16-year-old video blogger with a strange family. But all was not what it seemed. Ten years on, we revisit YouTube’s first viral hoax
Growing up in the online world: a national consultation
We are consulting on further measures to prepare children for the future in an age of rapid technological change. This includes potential age restrictions on social media and other services such as gaming sites and AI chatbots, restrictions on addictive design features and risky functionalities, and better support for parents and families.
rheingold's brainstorms: rheingoldian writing
For Information About Rheingold Associates Virtual Community Services, click here WHAT AN ONLINE HOST WANTS TO ACHIEVE:
softer computing club
a cozy community of humans and computers on the planet earth
Thoughts on Cyberpositionality: The Construction of Digital Communities in Digital Spaces, Damien Patrick Williams
I found Rebecca Monteleone, Martin Perez Comisso, and Elma Hajric’s “Cyberpositionality: Sociotechnical Location in the Digital Age” (2024) to be an extremely timely and important article which can…
Social Networking Utopia — Matt
In discussing the network topology of social networks — whether centralized like Facebook or federated like ActivityPub — I think the ult...
Your Online Clubhouse
I’ve gotten in the habit of explaining Discourse to people as a clubhouse. A place on the Internet that belongs exclusively to you and your friends – whether you have 10 friends or a few hundred thousand.
A Liability Framework for AI Companions
<p><span>Every day tens of millions of people engage in online conversations. These virtual interactions range from casual chats about daily life to deeply pers
