Online Communities
Explored
Originally, I was thinking of exploring both the good and bad of online identity, such as escaping from being bullied (for a niche interest) in a school environment, to the scary fact of not knowing who’s truly behind the screen. However, whilst this project touches on ‘never seeing an online friend’s face’, I’ve personally never seen this as a bad thing, or if I ever did, have grown accustomed to it within online community culture. I felt it would be more interesting to solely focus on the positives/benefits of online communities, such as how they provide people with sense of belonging (like with the aforementioned escaping bullying) as well as being used to help those in need. For this project, I interviewed Exenoxx, community manager for ‘Witch It’, who’s answers satisfied what I wished to illstruate perfectly!
“After two fundraiser streams, we raised over $2,000 for Levenn, helping her alleviate a huge portion of her medical bills. This event is a very fond memory for myself and the Witch It community”
— Exenoxx
Example pages from the publication
To the left are some of the best pages from the publication, each from a separate section, which highlights the main themes I wished to explore, that being the feeling of togetherness these communities have despite being so physically distant.
They describe how it feels to grow up with an online friend, detail a sad but uplifting case of community funding, and highlight how online communities provided stability during the 2020 pandemic.