NOTICE: This post re-uses content from an older post on my original Blogger Page. Certain edits may have been made to conform this post to my current writing style, and to correct inaccuracies / grammar mistakes that the original post may have contained.
In late 2019, I did a school project for a college English class that went into detail about online communities and how they affect people.
Along with this project, I conducted a survey to help prove my points and gather information from the public. I posted a link to the survey on my Twitter, Instagram Story, in a couple Discord Servers, and a platform I used to use called Amino to get as many people to answer the survey as possible. In the end, only 7 people responded to the survey. Here were the results:
Question 1: Are you part of an online community that focuses on (a) certain topic(s)?
Only one of the seven respondents of this survey said no to this question. This question was used mainly as a demographic question to gauge how many people doing the survey were part of a community centered around a central topic.
Question 2: Why do you usually join an online community?
This was a question that accepted multiple answers at once.
Everyone who responded to this question said that they mainly join a community to make friends. Five people said that they join an online community to find people with similar interests. Two people say that they join a community to gain new information on a topic. One person said that they join communities to share opinions on a topic.
Question 3: What platform would you most likely use?
This was another question that accepted multiple answers at once.
Five of the respondents said they would use Discord to join an online community. Three people said they would use either Twitter, Reddit, or Amino. Two people said they would use Instagram. One person said they would use Tumblr.
Question 4: How much do you like being in a community?
Respondents were given a scale from 1 to 5 to rate how much they like being in an online community, with 1 being “Strongly Dislike” and 5 being “Strongly Like”.
One person rated it a 1. Another person rated it a 3. Five others rated it a 4.
The Online Community Life Cycle
In my school project, I described the life cycle of online community membership as follows:
- Lurker (Pretty self explanatory; Someone who doesn't contribute to the community and 'lurks')
- Newbie (Someone who's relatively new to contributing to the community)
- Regular (Someone who posts regularly in a community)
- Leader (Someone who has reached 'celebrity status' within a community or someone who moderates a community)
- Elder (Someone who is preparing to leave a community based on changes of interests, relationships, etc.)
Question 5: What stage of the life cycle are you at?
Respondents were asked what stage of the life cycle they were currently at within the community they were most active.
Three people considered themselves Lurkers. Two people considered themselves Newbies. Two others considered themselves Regulars.
Question 6: What stages of the life cycle have you experienced?
Respondents were asked what stages of the life cycle they have experienced personally. This was a multi-answer question.
Six respondents said they've experienced the Lurker and Regular stages. Five said they've experienced the Newbie stage. Two have said they've experienced the Leader and Elder stages.
Question 7: Is this life cycle accurate?
Respondents were asked if the life cycle was accurate to how people enter, interact with, and exit a community.
Only one of the seven respondents said that the life cycle was not accurate, while the remaining six respondents said that it was accurate.
Question 8: Have commitments in online communities changed the way you approach IRL socialization?
Respondents were asked if a commitment to an online community had ever drastically changed how they interacted with people in real life.
Four people said that it didn't. Two people said that it did. One person was unsure.
Question 9: Do you agree that people can form lasting relationships online?
Respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement "Online communities can help bring people together and make long, lasting relationships."
Three people said that they slightly agreed with the statement. Two people said that they strongly agree with the statement. One person was neutral about the statement. One person strongly disagreed with the statement.
Question 10: Do you agree that you must be careful with who you trust online?
Respondents were asked if they agreed with the statement "You must be very careful with who you trust in an online community."
Four people slightly agreed with the statement. Two people strongly agreed with the statement. One person was neutral about the statement.
Additional Comments from Respondents
Respondents were asked at the end of the survey to give additional comments about online communities. Only four people gave additional comments.
One person said that "Online communities are great but there may be a downside to them, in which they could also be toxic."
Another person said that online communities could cause damage to one's mental health, citing cyberbullying.
The person who strongly disagreed with Question 9's statement said "Show me just one person who made a lasting friendship on the Internet. Impossible, isn't it?"
Finally, another person said that "Online communities are great but there may be a downside to them, in which they could also be toxic."
Research Conclusion
The results of the survey helped me not only with my school project, but in understanding how other people felt about online interaction. I hope that the results of this survey can benefit others with their research or with understanding why people like/dislike online communities.
Reflecting On The Survey 5 Years Later
When I conducted this survey back in 2019, I was hoping to have a sizable enough sample size to justify my findings. Unfortunately, I feel that a sample size of only 7 people wasn’t big enough to get a feel for how the Internet as a whole feels about online communities. I hope to be able to do a survey like this in the future with a much bigger sample size.
Additionally, I feel that some questions were worded improperly (the original Question 4 text is a bit confusing to read, using “like/dislike” instead of just “like”). Had some of the questions been worded properly, I feel that respondents would have had an easier time answering them.
Overall, I feel the survey could have done better with a larger sample size and different wording in the question set. I hope to get the opportunity to do a survey like this again someday, whether it be for school research or another purpose. With how much online interaction has changed within the past 5 years (especially with the rise of remote work during the COVID-19 Pandemic), I feel that a proper sequel to this survey is overdue.
Post made: September 3, 2024 at 7:45 PM EDT
(September 4, 2024, @031 .beat Time)