Assignment: Howard 129-165
This week's reading about the idea of belonging was very informative and gave lots of great, real-life examples. Howard begins by showing how a sense of belonging is created and then moves on to discuss several successful techniques as to how to incorporate belonging into an online community. Initiation rituals, stories of origin, leveling up, mythologies, symbols, and protocols are all important to any community as a way for people to fit in and learn about the group. When I read these sections, Tumblr kept coming into my mind. A great deal of people on Tumblr remain anonymous and have to kind of prove themselves in order to gain popularity (unlike with Facebook and other online communities), kind of like an initiation process. It takes time and consistency to gain a lot of followers and to "level up." For example, I have been on Tumblr for about three months now and I am just now starting to get a good number of followers based on the content I post.
The techniques that Howard suggests to use implement what is discussed in the previous section. The technique that stood out to me the most was to establish routines and protocol. In other words, create rules for the club or community. Howard compares this to the movie Fight Club, in which Tyler Durden blatantly spells out his set of rules. Some routines and protocol can be unspoken and simply understood based on knowledge and experience. For example, referring back to another part of the chapter, the members of the Red Hat Society (as well as many non-members) are already aware of the protocol to wear red hats, purple dresses, and whatever flashy attire they can find. However, the Red Hat Society also has rituals, mythologies, symbols, and other protocol that (mostly) only members know about.
After reading this chapter in Design to Thrive, I definitely feel like I understand more of what RIBS is all about; all of the components are beginning to come together to form a cohesive idea of what a successful online community consists of!
I really enjoyed reading this chapter too. I think it is because, the term "belonging" comes naturally to us. We understand the feeling of belonging and the desire to belong as human beings. Belonging on social media takes it to a whole other level. Just as you did, I talked about all of the techniques that social media websites can implicate to help their users feel this sense of belonging. I also focused on them with a particular example. I like your insight and personal input about the "leveling up" idea. It made that part more clear to me when you related it to your Tumblr page.
ReplyDeleteJust like Haley, I enjoyed your use of real life experience to expand on the ideas Dr. Howard puts forward here. I thought the protocol/routine section was really interesting, too. It didn't occur to me before reading this that this could help create that sense of belonging, but it makes perfect sense now. People have a tendency to be drawn towards that which they understand easily and shy away from the chaotic and inexplicable. A set of procedures is the perfect way to give that sense of stability and understanding to the user, and I think you explicated on that well here. It definitely helped me to further understand Howard's meaning!
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