Electronic Tribes: The Virtual Worlds of Geeks, Gamers, Shamans, and Scammers

CHAPTER 3. Electronic Tribes (E-Tribes): Some Theoretical Perspectives and Implications

W ith computer-mediated communication (CMC) media such as the Internet, the barriers of time and geographical boundaries to communication are easily overcome. Thus, the idea of electronic tribe (i.e., e-tribe) is able to take shape where individuals are able to communicate with like-minded people, with the aid of electronic communication media, as if they are within the same geographical area. The flexibility and speed offered by electronic media provide easy access for communicating globally. This chapter will offer an overview of global communication and e-tribe development. After discussing the use of CMC and their possibilities for global communication, I will move to specific media theories to describe how they attempt to explain communication interactions never possible before CMC and often difficult to observe. In addition , theories are presented to explain subsequent relational development among group members, especially in e-tribes. The chapter will then proceed to discuss the implications of e-tribes and CMC media from organizational, communication, and cultural standpoints. Recommendations will also be provided for external organizations aiming to promote to e-tribes as consumer groups. Global Communication and E-Tribe Formation The need for people to communicate and collaborate across their immediate physical environments is pressing. Such a feat is revolutionary, considering that even in academic environments that provide techniCHAPTER 3 Electronic Tribes (E-Tribes): Some Theoretical Perspectives and Implications bolanle olaniran Electronic Tribes (E-Tribes) 37 cally suitable venues for scholars who want to discuss similar or specific problem areas, such collaboration is made difficult because few universities employ two or more experts on the same subject.1 However, with the Internet, scholars have means and access to engage in online—in addition to offline or face-to-face (FtF)—communication. Individuals interested in each other’s works are able to communicate and work together while living in different geographical locales. As these scholars familiarize themselves with each other’s work, their network becomes “crystallized” as a less amorphous “invisible college” that is defined or characterized by shared interests in the area of specialty and may culminate in social friendship ties. The resulting group is a scholarly “ingroup ” like an electronic tribe, a unique entity that functions to allow members to assist one another and share with each other in areas of specialization. While some scholarly groups or networks of individuals are able to communicate both through electronic means and FtF (e.g., meetings at conferences), there are hosts of other social networks that are tight in-groups, but their communication is restricted to the electronic media. Electronic groups may or may never extend their communication beyond the confines of an electronic medium, yet their ties are no less than those of e-tribes with FtF possibilities. The focus in this chapter is on those e-tribes without FtF possibilities. E-tribes have an informal and adaptive structure, which allows them to be flexible in exchanging and evaluating information. The lack of a formal structure in an e-tribe suggests that communication depends on the group’s frequency of interaction and the quality of social ties.2 The Critical Mass Theory Computer networks facilitating development of e-tribes allow members to exchange information, to collaborate, and to socialize. At times, e-mail is used to communicate with members one-on-one, at other times, to small groups of them (e.g., through listservs); the Web is used for gathering data and in turn circulating data among members. Given the nature of e-tribes as small, dynamic, ongoing groups communicating for the purpose of accomplishing specific goal(s), it is important to examine the use of media by groups and the effects of these media on them. One of the theories addressing this issue is the critical mass theory. The critical mass theory distinguishes between the diffusion of inno- 38 Conceptualizing Electronic Tribes vations for individual versus group use by stressing that diffusion of a new communication medium requires collective participation by two or more people, which is different from the diffusion of commodities such as soaps, which are used independently by each person.3 On the contrary, a person can only benefit from the use of a new communication medium when others in the network choose to use it. As a result, the critical mass theory predicts that the chances of a person using a new medium depend on the benefits accruing to a critical mass of users rather...