The Social Dynamics of Online Communities
Online communities have been around 40+ years. Newer ones are having greater influence over our real-world societies.
From subreddits to Facebook groups and discord channels, how humans are organising and leveraging the power of online communities offers us a fascinating window into how traditional social dynamics are adapting and transforming in digital spaces. And influencing our real-world lives. This also tells us why brands that try to build their own digital communities mostly fail.
Many online communities ebb and flow like the tides. Some form “tidal pools” if you will, that can last for many years, most survive around 18–48 months (based on my research). Yet there’s some that have been running for 40+ years.
I’m condensing a lot into a short article here! In the last part I will look at the possible future of online communities.
The Usenet newsgroup comp.risks started in 1985 and alt.folklore.urban started in 1988 and remain active to this day. Then there’s the venerated Well (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link) one of the most significant and influential online communities. Original ones likes these started in the late 1970’s often as Bulletin Boards.
Part of the long-term success of the Well has been it’s digital resilience to evolve alongside technologies. Well members have, over generations, created their own mythologies and lore, inside jokes and structures that get handed down, yet can evolve over time.
What’s interesting with these older online communities and the ones that tend to last longer in other digital places however, is that they have some form of physical engagement as well; meet-ups, conferences, regular real-world activities. Those that don’t, collapse faster.
While some of these communities still exist, millions more have been added using various technologies, perhaps most famously today being Reddit. Considered so valuable that Reddit made deals with OpenAI and Google for it to access participant content.
Most major brands over the past 15 or so years have attempted to build their own social media platforms or channels. The majority fail as they discover the true cost of not just building, but having to maintain an online community. It’s a bit funny because ask a brand to construct a huge building and surrounding village in the real-world and support it at no charge and the CEO would boot you out of the office.
Perhaps three of the biggest brands that have succeeded though are Lego, Nike+ and Apple. Years ago, Lego build their Ideas platform. It has flourished and even lead to consumer driven spin-off networks. The other is Apple with its developer platforms, which have also evolved complex hierarchies and cultural norms.
What’s key to note with all of these is that they also involve a physical real-world aspect to them. With Lego conventions and regional or city meetings and Apple with its annual WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference.) Nike+ holds running events to bring the community together physically. This creates spaces to reinforce social bonds, evolve kinship systems and creates deeper value exchanges between members and brand representatives.
The challenge for purely online communities is the limits of artificial solidarity. Trying to build an online community and just expecting a genuine community to emerge without social bonds and shared cultural practices is pretty much impossible. It is part of the reason Google+, while an excellent social platform, failed.
The most successful of online communities find ways to move from their original mechanical structure to a more organic structure where how they govern themselves adapts to both the changes platforms inevitably do through to shifts in cultural norms and rules of governance. This is a complex process, especially as an online community grows larger.
A subreddit group may start with an identified leader such as a moderator admin and some helper moderators. As the community grows however, it must take on different structures, or what danah boyd calls “networked governance.” New roles and a hierarchy tend to evolve over time along with value transformation, such as how participants and community leaders are rewarded and developing digital governance systems. These are important elements to long-term community success.
This happens in the real-world. A small town may have a mayor and a few councillors but as it grows into a city, it adds more bureaucracy and evolves different cultural norms, behaviours and customs. Or, like the digital world, a group of nearby towns may come together to create a regional municipality, which then has to integrate the various cultural norms and structures of each town into a cohesive identity. These too, sometimes fail.
When online communities miss or fail to see their community is shifting from mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity, is when communities tend to fracture. Some in that community may evolve a different vision and thus split and form a new community. This happens quite a lot.
The Future of Online Communities
What I see ahead is the emergence of what I call “meta-communities” (no, not the metaverse!). They will function across multiple platforms and continue with online and offline activities to strengthen them.
This will be a sort of cross-platform cultural ecosystem. A community may use a Discord, WhatsApp channel or subreddit for daily engagements, BlueSky or Twitter (x) for more public discourse and Instagram for cultural expressions. Different platforms will serve different ritual and social functions, but still within the same community.
Already, online communities are influencing politics from a local to national and increasingly, international perspective. They will grow consumer influence over brands and purchasing activities. Online communities may also play an even more significant role in cultural transmission and social organising.
Already online communities are influencing traditional institutions. Something we see in crypto communities looking to create alternative economic and monetary systems. This will only increase in the coming years. Organisations that fail to understand and adapt will risk becoming increasingly disconnected from the communities and audiences they are seeking to engage with or influence.
As online communities have grown and evolved, it has lead to now generations of people establishing systems and cultural practices around operating them. Online communities are to broader society as what Windows’ Office365 became as a de facto business productivity suite.
Online communities are now part of the sociocultural fabric of our global societies. They are active participants in our world. The way they work changes by culture, but common values can be found similar to the real-world. The importance of online communities in the future of our physical and digital societies cannot be understated.