Session 3: literature review

Ridings and Gefen’s article was thought provoking. They identified several motivators for joining an online community. The primary motivator was information exchange, with secondary motivators of social support (a method for self-identity or self-evaluation) and friendship (which provides benefits beyond social support and information exchange). I see strong connections between Maslow’s hierarchy and this article. In order for an individual to fully participate in an online community they must meet and achieve several levels of pre-requisites. These pre-requisites range from basic physiological comfort (ability to connect to the internet, comfort in physical space) and culminating in self-actualization, or realization of self-identity. This model may begin to explain why some individuals participate fully in online communities while others do not.

I’m not certain that I agree with Ling et al’s application of social theory to virtual community participation. I agree with the application of social theory to RL communities, and I believe that online communities (OCs) share many aspects with RL communities because we lay RL social schemes over the online experience. However, I remain unconvinced that “social loafing” is at the root of user under-contribution. I feel that this is a very simplistic model which fails to allow for the complexity of human interaction.

Schrock identified the interplay between extroversion, self-disclosure, computer anxiety and self-efficacy as a model for exploring participation with SNSs. This is an interesting model, and proved valuable in assessing answerbag.com, but I have some reservations about his final research findings. Schrock found that girls are particularly active in SNS settings, and linked this to a combination of higher self-disclosure and extroversion levels. I wonder if these findings reflect preconceptions about gender stereotypes?

Tedjamulia does an excellent job of synthesizing the above arguments. In sum: there are several factors which influence whether or not a person participates in OC’s, and there are several ways of encouraging this participation.