Virtual Community, is it real or not?

Virtual Community, is it real or not? This is a controversial class discussion that divides the class into two.  Both parties has its own valid principles and stands. I myself, being part of the class must also have a stand with regard to the issue.

If we are going to follow St. Thomas Aquinas’ philosophical line of thought, the virtual community This metaphysical premise becomes the general framework of the idea that existence must be first and foremost the basic and intrinsic criterion of all real beings. Thus, in the surface level of understanding, virtual community as a real community falls on this philosophical premise. However, this is not a question of mere existence. It is not an inquiry of proving about virtual community’s existence. I believe that this question wanted to drill a deeper meaning and bounteous reflections. In my own view, this question wants to uncover or expose not just its existence, but the authenticity of its essence and its implication to the real walks of life.

is real because it is undoubtedly existing. For St. Thomas, every being in so far as it exists in reality, is real.

To make things clearer, I use the lexical definition of both words as the ground of my judgment. Lexically speaking, VIRTUAL is an adjective word that has a meaning of being very close to being something without actually being it. Its connotation is tantamount to the meaning of artificial, not genuine or imitation. On the other hand, REAL in its etymological sense means actually existing or happening not imaginary, not fake, false or artificial.  It speaks of something important and deserving to be regarded or treated in a serious way.

Now let us talk about community. Community in a narrower sense, can only be called community when there are various people having various differences gathered together for a purpose. People should commune, reach and extend themselves to one another, so that the community will flourish. Communication then, in any means is necessary. Virtual community have these things. It involves communication through the internet as a means to share ideals, aspirations, vision, interests, etc. Virtual communication affects life to its extent.

But then again, authentic community is not just about virtual communication, virtual presence, and virtual relationship. Authentic community needs a real and genuine presence – a presence that goes beyond words. Real community needs physical and tangible presence. Authentic community does not only depend on verbal communication, not like virtual community. Real community is a community where real people can extend themselves in a very various ways. Real community is not an off and on community. It must be continuous.  Virtual community is a community yet not actually being it. So much so that, I came up with a realization that virtual community is not a real community because it can never be equated as real community as SMSC community.  Therefore, virtual community exists not as real community, but as a medium for communication. No more no less.