The Problem With Online Communities...
What happens when digital replaces IRL: The Neal Ungerleider Newsletter #79
I work in digital marketing for a living. A big part of that is dealing with online communities.
And let me tell you: Online communities during pandemics are weird things.
For a whole bunch of reasons that we all know and I don’t need to get into, traditional IRL gathering places are taking a secondary role to online these days. When we’re socializing with friends, family and strangers, it’s just as likely (or more likely, in pandemic time!) to be over Instagram or in a text message chain than at someone’s house or at the bar. I mean, we’re relying on Reddit to navigate the unemployment system.
Online communities take a whole bunch of different forms these days. Facebook groups shared around common interests (Neighborhood Facebook groups, Facebook groups for fandoms of media properties). Twitter subcultures (Journalist Twitter, scientist Twitter, academia Twitter, weird Twitter). Nextdoor groups. Subreddits. People following the same Instagram accounts. Clubhouse rooms.
But all of them pretty much share the same structural problem—It’s easy to stop obnoxious people from dominating conversations IRL, but obnoxious people tend to dominate conversations online.
It’s frustrating. Those neighborhood Facebook groups end up getting dominated by the threadsitter who’s determined to make a point and chases the casual users away. Twitter’s algorithms reward the controversial at the expense of the substantial. Reddit boards end up fostering communities that are as toxic or non-toxic as moderators will them to be.
When I’m at a party, I can find an excuse to stop talking to the obnoxious person. If their obnoxiousness reaches a certain threshold, the party hosts might even ask them to leave. But online, the obnoxious people follow you across the room… and even invite other obnoxious people to the party.
And while there are great community spaces online, they require a ton of moderation, nurturing and TLC from (usually unpaid) moderators and hosts who almost always have day jobs and other commitments on top of things. Without that nurturing—online group gardening kinda sorta—things go sour real quick.
But finding IRL community is hard these days! So we’re stuck with online communities even with all their structural imperfections.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about.
Best,
Neal
About This Newsletter: Neal Ungerleider is a strategic communications consultant who works with individuals, agencies and brands. He writes this weekly newsletter about the media communications industrial complex and hopes that you found it of use. Check out his bio, his portfolio, and current projects and interests .
Connect on Twitter or LinkedIn and learn more about at nealungerleider.com. To reach Neal, reply to this email or drop a line in the comments.
This really resonates for me right now. One thing I want to highlight is your observation about these communities relying on unpaid managers. It's wild to me that community managers are so devalued, or just plain unseen. I actually wonder what a community manager labor movement might look like and how it could make the internet so much better. Crazy talk, I know. But hey, a community member can dream.