Facebook.  It’s an online site with 1.59 billion active users (no doubt including you and I).  Yes it’s a community, but there isn’t really any intimacy within a community of 1.59 billion.  This is where Facebook ‘groups’ enter the scenario.  One group that I am a ‘member’ of is a closed group named “Aussie Outlanders”.  It’s a fan page dedicated to Diana Gabaldon’s book series (turned television series) “Outlander”.  See the plot summary here!

I joined this group as my mother is a member and I was monitoring the level of ‘crazy’ that this group of middle-aged women could muster.  It’s an interesting mix of women (and the occasional man) who boast about the characters and their deep, undying love for them.  The series, being based in Scotland invites the kilt as an item of clothing into discussion, where dozens of images of half naked men wearing kilts circulate.

I decided to actually interact with the group and try and provoke the women with the following post:

(Images sourced from: Meme 1, Meme 2)

It’s clear that there was a fair amount of interaction surrounding this post and 27 ‘likes’ were achieved.  Although, none of the comments were aggressive or were angry about my post.  Each member took my post as comedic and replied in such a manner.  All these women seem genuine and kind, who are trying to enjoy their shared interest for ‘Outlander’ without nastiness.  It’s a seemingly innocent community in terms of creating a comfortable and safe environment for members to join and interact – purely to share their love of the series.  These women are an engaged audience who are able to further engage with other audience members through social media – because isn’t that the point of being online?   There is no cyber-bullying (a risk that comes with these online communities) and there is an overall accepting, supportive vibe.  I’m not sure if this is because of the maturity level of these women or the fact that there is the fear of removal from the group via the very vigilant ‘admins’ (an online safety measure Facebook as incorporated into their community).

I think Facebook works as a platform for these women because it is so accessible and available.  It is also designed to be easy to use.  It’s like a modern-day book club, where women from all over Australia can digitally come together to discuss the books, the latest television episode, spoilers, and swoon over the characters.  It allows this shared interaction between 2,790 members as opposed to your neighbourhood book club where 4 or 5 women may show up (and bring scones if you’re lucky).  I understand there are benefits to Face-to-Face conversation however, I think the benefits of online community outweighs the positives of in person interaction in this instance.  These women are moving with the generational times and utilising new-age technology to participate in communication which really highlights that the “contrast between traditional media and social media [is] one of aesthetics and style,” (Bolter, 2016).  This group indicates how there are very real benefits of digital media (as opposed to traditional media) in terms of communication. This parallels with Week 7’s Reading and how if you want to be heard, talk through the medium that is being used: technology.  The Facebook group is also an example of ‘topic chats‘ which are one of the ‘big-5’ (Jay Oatway 2012) in the steps to gaining social media followers.   Aussie Outlander’s is a perfect example of how a topic chat can insight online communities and grow their discussion.

This website is also an example of ‘flow’ which we spoke about in Week 7’s lecture.  ‘Catharsis’ and ‘flow’ are ideas on how online websites move and develop.  ‘Flow’ “involves forgetting of identity” (Bolter, 2012:211) which is a characteristic of this Facebook group.  It’s structure is seemingly random in terms of irregularity of posts and structure of content, regardless of the general theme of the group.  There are posts which involve the community such as the image on the left being a “Happy Birthday” post to one of the group members where it involved 46 comments and 74 ‘likes’ showing the interaction between this group – but it is not a direct link to the show.  This post is a perfect example of how digital media has allowed a community to flourish.  It indicates how the group is more than just a fandom culture and how a real ‘flow’ community has been created.

Maybe by now you’re interested in a show that’s inspired 2,790 women (at least)… Here’s the official trailer for a sneak peak into season 1:

Outlander will be internationally distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkizwJUiVjA