The prediction, in brief:

As we become more fragmented, the virtual communities on the Internet can help people put together a community of conviviality and a support structure. Sometimes, strangers can be surprisingly supportive.

Predictor: Rheingold, Howard

Prediction, in context:

In a 1993 article for The Wall Street Journal, Laurie Hays writes about social questions raised by the Internet. She interviews Howard Rheingold.”Howard Rheingold, the editor of the Whole Earth Review, a Sausilito, Calif.-based general-interest quarterly, … says he believes that the communities forming on the networks fill certain voids that have opened up as other kinds of communities disintegrate. He points out that office life no longer exists for the thousands of people who work at home, and that the role of the town square, the lunch counter and the neighborhood tavern is shrinking as people grow too busy, or too afraid of crime, to stop and socialize. ‘As we become more fragmented, the virtual communities on the Internet can help people put together a community of conviviality and a support structure,’ he says. ‘Sometimes, strangers can be surprisingly supportive.’ However, he adds, ‘we are so much more than we are over the Internet.’ Mr. Rheingold also concedes that there’s a drawback to this kind of interaction: the danger that superficial and anonymous relationships may increasingly replace the real thing.”

Biography:

Howard Rheingold, one of the first writers to illuminate the ideals and foibles of virtual communities, published a webzine called Electric Minds and wrote “Virtual Reality,” “Smart Mobs” and “Virtual Community.” He also was the editor of Whole Earth Review and the Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)

Date of prediction: January 1, 1993

Topic of prediction: Community/Culture

Subtopic: Virtual Communities

Name of publication: Wall Street Journal

Title, headline, chapter name: Technology (A Special Report): A New World – Personal Effects: Amid All the Talk About the Wonders of the Networks, Some Nagging Social Questions Arise

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?INT=0&SelLanguage=0&TS=1046812098&Did=000000028091201&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=42&Sid=1&RQT=309

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Smith, Ian T.