There has not been any community online since the early to mid 90s. Since irl space, which is geographic space, looses out to the virtual world as a place where people interact, and the medium for accessing that virtual world is individualistic (PCs, smartphones), the result is extreme egocentrism. You seek out what gratifies you, what you agree with, and only talk to those who are identical to you and say the same things. So there is in fact no communication going on. It’s more like a mirror.
Go read what older generations said about friendship, ask the older people (who lived in a pre or proto-virtual age) anecdotes about their friends. You will quickly realize that friendship no longer exists. Social encounter is mediated by commodified spaces (Twitter or the coffee shop) and consumption of images. Friends go to movie theater, they don’t talk much with each other, they communicate with what they see on screen, and go home and maybe text each other. Communication is no longer person to person, but lone wolf individual to an image displayed on a screen, in which the relationship to other persons is a side thing. So we search for friends online, disembodied friends who are just mirrors and can be disposed of or forgotten about if you get tired of them. We try to replicate what we have lost irl on the internet sucking us in deeper into the quicksand.
Go read what older generations said about friendship, ask the older people (who lived in a pre or proto-virtual age) anecdotes about their friends. You will quickly realize that friendship no longer exists. Social encounter is mediated by commodified spaces (Twitter or the coffee shop) and consumption of images. Friends go to movie theater, they don’t talk much with each other, they communicate with what they see on screen, and go home and maybe text each other. Communication is no longer person to person, but lone wolf individual to an image displayed on a screen, in which the relationship to other persons is a side thing. So we search for friends online, disembodied friends who are just mirrors and can be disposed of or forgotten about if you get tired of them. We try to replicate what we have lost irl on the internet sucking us in deeper into the quicksand.