Although I don’t agree with all that Barlow has to say in his essay “Virtual Communities: Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood,” a couple of his points particularly resonate with me. Barlow went to the world wide web in search of community – community that he believed was disappearing from his hometown and the American cultural landscape in general. He reports that the average American moves twelve times in his life. Are we all looking for community (in vain)? It certainly seems elusive to me at times. I’ve already moved ten times. Barlow concludes that the physical place of his hometown remains, but the concept of its community is “largely a wraith of nostalgia.” I hope this isn’t the case for the future of our country/world/universe – just a bunch of individuals in a hazy search for something that exists as a glorified memory, but not as a living, breathing part of their experience.
Experience. Barlow claims that “information is alienated experience.” My own life experiences confirm this. And this poses a challenge for me as a teacher in a time when laws, congressional acts, and public opinion shapes educational and curriculur policies in a manner that frequently values information over experience. Let’s face it, a prescribed curriculum of say – thesis statements, in-text citations, and grammar – is a hard sell when divorced from anything meaningful in students’ lives. You can try to connect these surrealities to more concrete realities by providing context, offering topic choices, etc., but when it all comes down to it, a strong alienating-potential remains.
So what is one to do? Hope that a “good” classroom community will carry the day and make the information more palatable (if it can’t be meaningful)? To create this atmosphere, perhaps have ice-breakers and trust exercises? That would seem to fall under Barlow’s critique of humans trying to “build” something that can only be grown. He says that “human communities, are simply too complex to design.” Barlow states that to have a genuine community there needs to be a shared sense of adversity. I don’t know if figuring out the rhetorical strategies of an author counts as adversity.
Please understand, I’m not discounting our class’s community. This is the furthest from the truth. I am truly appreciative that I had the opportunity to be part of this group, this particular collection of individuals for the semester. Coming to class each day was usually the best part of my day (don’t laugh) - you all are just that cool! But I guess what I’m getting at, is…is Barlow wrong? Does a community need shared adversity to flourish? I might be willing to meet him half way on this and say that it could definitely enhance community. Just imagine how great it might have been if, for our curriculum, we were honing in on a few major issues and then, solving these real problems of consequence rather than simply discussing them from the safety of our semi-circle.
For now, though, until I become queen of the universe and have curricular and creative control over introductory college composition courses, I think we did mighty fine as a class. You all worked your tushies off, contributed to each other’s and my intellectual growth, prepared yourselves to go off and write oodles of papers for academia, and I hope, had some fun in the process. Good luck to each of you in whatever endeavors tickle your fancy!
