Verbal rape and why I liked it

Hey Derek. What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song. I will try not to sing out of key.

Now we may not have all had our younger, wonder years documented on film and set to the theme music of Joe Cocker like that of Fred Savage and Derek Lackaff, but with photographs, home videos and a little thing called memory, we have these stories and images that make us laugh and wonder what the hell is on Joey's head. More importantly, we have forever persevered milestones that we can look back upon and make us long for what once was.

Looking back to my freshman year, and I'm talking pre-ponytail, I had my first meaningful experience with an online moderated community. The results were far greater than what I ever would have expected.

As a timid freshman, fresh out of all boys school and commuting all the way from South Buffalo, being dropped in the middle of a giant campus with no friends and little idea on how to change that was intimidating to say the least. Amidst a sea of gen-eds and filler was English 102, the only class I was actually looking forward to.

After walking into a class of thirty people I didn't know and striking up casual conversation, I had hope that I would actually meet and befriend some new people. And as the only small class on my schedule, it really was my only hope.

Though everyone seemed relatively friendly, conversation never really reached anything more than chit-chat. Then, our fearless leader Sarah Campbell informed us that we would be writing online assignments each week and fittingly commenting on each others work.

Yep. Forced communication. It was embarrassing. It was verbal rape. It was an invasion of privacy. It was exactly what we needed.

Fun topics and boring ones alike, there was always an outpouring of response towards every post. And with responses came further responses from the author and banter back and forth. Eventually it turned into an every day thing and almost everyone would joke and chat on topic and off. We couldn't wait for the next online work day.

"People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind. " Fernback, J., & Thompson, B. (1995). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved 17 October, 2008, from The Well Web site: http://www.well.com/~hlr/texts/VCcivil.html


As the playful online conversations developed, we added each other on Facebook and began to talk outside of class. We started to hang out. Legitimate friendships developed. Internet became reality.

"Part of what makes the negotiation of Friendship on social network sites tricky is that it’s deeply connected to participant’s offline social life." Boyd, D. (December 2006). Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites. Retrieved 17 October, 2008, from First Monday Web site: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_12/boyd/

One of my best friends today came from that fateful English 102 class. I still talk to a lot of my former classmates and I have multiple friendships that have stemmed from the ones I formed in that class.

And most importantly, I came out of my shell. I'm far, far more outgoing and confident because of that class. This online community helped me as a student and more importantly, as a person.

Once a shy and lonely freshman, I'm now in the midst of a near year long relationship with a beautiful girl and have way more friends than I would ever thought I would.

It's so much easier to hit enter than to say something face to face. But when you can take that online interaction and turn it into something real, we truly make the most of the internet and mesh the online community with the one we live in.

Oh the memories. Fast forward to 2008 and the impending midterm of doom. Le sigh.