More Musings

Modern Communities

In a Yahoo News story I read about a study on Modern Communities done by GfK Roper Consulting. I couldn’t find the original study, so I’m quoting the article here.

A February study by GfK Roper Consulting titled “Modern Communities” finds that online communities represent a real and growing phenomenon, but one that is dwarfed by interest in real-world social networks.

“One of our key findings in the survey is community in the broader sense is really important to people,” says Kathy Sheehan, senior VP with GfK Roper Consulting. Rating the importance of community groups, survey respondents expressed strong or some connection with: extended family (94%), neighborhood or town (80%), religious or spiritual organization (77%), hobby/interest (69%), workplace (68%), local community group (45%), national social activism/volunteer group (30%), professional group or union (25%), and virtual or online community (20%).

As an indicator of people’s hunger for community, Sheehan points to an increase in the number of people seeking co-op living arrangements at universities around the United States. “People are alienated by technology,” she explained. “That said, we do see there’s a small but growing group of people who feel a strong connection to some sort of online community.”

Among those aware of online communities, 50% said the best reason to use them was to keep in touch with friends and family. A mere 16% wanted to view and share media content with people of similar interests. Perhaps more noteworthy, 61% of the total public — based on the 1,004 American adults surveyed — are not interested in online communities and 18% said they don’t have the time for them.

Sheehan says “there will be a shakeout” among social networking sites. But don’t give up on social networking yet. Sheehan observes that among the young and influential — the most active 10% of the public and a leading indicator of market trends — online communities are “almost interchangeable” with offline ones.