Virtually devoid of divide

We have united ourselves in various virtual communities for our own selfish business, knowledge and emotional needs. Have we ever given a thought about uniting ourselves on moral and spiritual realms?


India is a country whose demographics tell some tale. About 50% of its population is less than 20 years old, while 65% of its population is less than 35 years. It implies that the entire market segment which is youthful is more than double the size of United States and Canada. Entertainment, leisure, lifestyle, education, retailing etc., are services geared for this youth market with robust enthusiasm. We can understand the strength of the human resource we have. We are even proud about this fact.
We also know and understand the rules of the community; we know the healing effect of community in terms of individual lives. If we could somehow find a way across the bridge of our knowledge, would not these same rules have a healing effect upon our world?
We human beings have often been referred to as social animals. But we are not yet community creatures. We are impelled to relate with each other for our survival. But we do not yet relate with the inclusivity, realism, self-awareness, vulnerability, commitment, openness, freedom, equality, and love of genuine community spirit.
It is clearly no longer enough to be simply social animals, babbling together at cocktail parties and brawling with each other in business and over boundaries. It is our task our essential, central, crucial task to transform ourselves from mere social creatures into community creatures. It is the only way that human evolution will be able to proceed further. We need to go beyond the narrow confines of petty selfishness and rise to see a new and powerful community emerging with strong identity that is typical of a psycho-spiritual being.
While reflecting on the growth and development of human society, we are baffled to see the growth of another sector. That is the IT sector impelled by the strength of the world wide web and the internet. The rate of the growth of the Internet has generally exceeded most estimates, with increases in many, but not all segments of the population. The in direct relevance if you are planning an online community for people with no Internet access. But more importantly, it is also a call to each of us to recognize how we can lessen the divide and look for ways to contribute to the improvement of our communities as part of our online life.
There has been much speculation on the effect of online activities on our offline lives, ranging from concerns about addiction, to meeting the "loves of our lives" online and getting married. There are examples from all the extremes, but the more relevant question is how do we integrate our offline and online experiences.
Amy Jo Kim, online community architect, has suggested that there are two ways we participate in online communities: "the kind where you’re yourself and the kind where you are playing out a fantasy role.
We are often understood by people in real life and in real communities. It is not the case with the virtual world. Here you can boost your image with better photograph, cleverly crafted name and curriculum vitae and identify yourself with any icon that you want to be. We have created a split within us and within the community. The virtual community that we visualise needs to be devoid of all these divisions.
We have united ourselves in various virtual communities for our own selfish business, knowledge and emotional needs. Have we ever given a thought about uniting ourselves on moral and spiritual realms? Can we make an attempt to use these virtual communities to unite ourselves? Can they make ourselves devoid of all the divides and the split that we have created, both within each of us and among the community members?