Feeling togetherness online: a phenomenological sketch of online communal experiences

Abstract

The internet provides us with a multitude of ways of interacting with one another. In discussions about how technological innovations impact and shape our interpersonal interactions, there is a tendency to assume that encountering people online is essentially different to encountering people offline. Yet, individuals report feeling a sense of togetherness with one another online that echoes offline descriptions. I consider how we can understand people's experiences of being together with others online, at least in certain instances, as arising out of their feeling together as a we. Using Walther's phenomenological framework of communality, I explore whether the following might take place online: (i) habitual communal experiences and (ii) actual we-experiences. While neither of these sketches amount to a full account of how we find ourselves with others online, I suggest that they reveal how insights from the phenomenology of sociality can be used to deepen our understanding of online communality. What is more, I suggest that the strength of this approach is that in some cases it allows us to circumvent tricky questions about embodiment online and, in others, prompts us to ask to what extent a fully-embodied interaction is really required for we-experiences.

Taking Watsuji online: betweenness and expression in online spaces

“…63 (ibid., p. 162). 64 For a discussion of the kinds of community that we find online, see Osler (2020a). 65 For an excellent in-depth analysis of epistemic bubbles and echo chambers in the online sphere, see Nguyen (2020).…”

Insights into codeswitching from online communication: Effects of language preference and conditions arising from vocabulary richness

“…People debate about the extent to which encountering people online is similar to and different from encountering people face-to-face (see Osler, 2019). The question gains urgency during the time of a pandemic when many face-to-face transactions must occur remotely.…”

The dynamics of negative stereotypes as revealed by tweeting behavior in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack

“…This framework can be applied to our data because individual users within a small-world network act according to their own rules in tweeting positively about the Prophet of Islam while using network reactions and feedback within the network to learn how to better shape the content of their tweets to meet a common goal. As for the small group of supertweeters, the phenomenological experience of “feeling togetherness online” can foster and enhance that cohesiveness and synchronicity ( Osler, 2019 ). Indeed, the sharing of emotional experience as reflected by the “we-experience” (e.g., Zahavi, 2015 ) has been characterized by common intentionality, reciprocal awareness, interdependency, and affective requirement ( Osler, 2019 ).…”

“…As for the small group of supertweeters, the phenomenological experience of “feeling togetherness online” can foster and enhance that cohesiveness and synchronicity ( Osler, 2019 ). Indeed, the sharing of emotional experience as reflected by the “we-experience” (e.g., Zahavi, 2015 ) has been characterized by common intentionality, reciprocal awareness, interdependency, and affective requirement ( Osler, 2019 ). Indeed, overtime, the clusters we targeted became less central and assumed greater distinctiveness.…”