"Cyberactivism"

I agree with what someone had said in an earlier posts when they compared the Alexis and Craig study with the article on Zeke Spierr. I thought it would be too completely different topics: love and politics, not two things I thought I would be comparing. In retrospect, I realized that relationships online all take on many of the same characteristics. In regards to the Spier article, he used the Internet to figure out when and where the protests would be taking place and used it as a medium to band his peers together. A bond was formed through similar interests, just like the online love stories like Alexis and Craig. The internet allowed Spier to meet with a group whose protest goals matched his own. He would advertise the organizational meetings on the independent media web sites and on all of the email lists. Later when he discusses his trip to Philadelphia, "if it weren't for the internet, I don't know how I would have found anybody." (107)
But similarly to online relationships such as Craig and Alexis's these groups had to meet in person at some point. "While the Internet acted as the networking tool to bring these activists together from across the country, the face-to-face meetings and the formations of affinity groups were the essential step in forming the community that would act as one on the street." (109) I do agree with some parts of the quote there are other parts I disagree with. Many argue that these communities could not have formed exclusively on the Internet, and that it is impossible for people to form communities if they cannot have face-to-face interaction. While I agree it is extremely important for these groups to meet in person, I disagree that it is impossible for these communities to form. Before they meet a goal and purpose is put in place, it just takes face-to-face interaction to carry out the plans. The cause and people's strong beliefs is what banded them together in the first place. An example of this is the Black Bloc that is described as being "so loosely organized that the participants do not even know each other. They simply share a radical anti-capitalist view..."(105) This group feels so strongly about their cause, just because they've never met in person doesn't not mean they cannot be successful. I believe the group would become more unified if when they did meet for protests they exchanged more dialogue and would cause their group to become stronger. But just to conclude my point, while it does take face-to-face interaction to accomplish a protest I believe it is because the sense of community formed online beforehand that is what makes them successful.