The Demographics of Internet Communities

Internet communities, having only started to occur over the past decade,provide new and useful insight into our society.

On a forum or In a Game, it generally does not matter what somebody looks like, where they are from, or how much they earn. All that matters is they are human. Sure, assumptions can be made, but it is impossible to ever know for sure the details of community member's real life circumstances.

This means how people get along and judge each other is based solely on their respective personalities. This gives us many insights into human nature, and what our society might be like if not for all of these physical and material differences detailed earlier.

Popular member of online communities and games are often the ones with dominant personalities. They are not afraid to take charge, and enjoy leading their fellows. Also, it is often the more humorous members which achieve notoriety, as there really is no easier way to get people to like you than making them laugh.

Online games such as Star Wars The Old Republic and World of Warcraft offer many of these opportunities in themselves. Communities such as guilds even have official leaders, and often very strong hierarchies. Rather than the way it works in real life, the leaders of these groups can be fourteen year old boys who play after (or during) school, or 50 year old unemployed women looking for a way to spend their day. In games like SWTOR this can go even further, with guilds forming on the forums when the game is still months from release.

Regardless of the details of the particular communities, online groups differ greatly from real life counterparts, and in doing so show us a thing or two about our real society.