Kevin Lee- Week 9 Blog Post

            “Social Transformations from Virtual Communities,” a chapter in Professor Kieu-Linh Valverde’s book “Transnationalizing Viet Nam,” talks about how the Internet brought together the people of Vietnam and created many communities with people of similar interests. The Internet helped create the VNForum, which was “a modest e-mail list run by idealistic overseas Vietnamese aspiring to create positive change in Viet Nam” (Valverde 88). VNForum helped bring together many people in Vietnam because the Vietnamese were finally exposed to online media. They were finally able to receive information about certain events and also participate in many events as well. Professor Valverde mentions that the founders of VNForum “wanted the ability to freely express their feelings on any matter…this phenomenon is also about the indivifual rising to form community” (Valverde 88).

This chapter reminded me of what we were talking about this week in class: about how the internet or social networking has affected the people of the world. We talked about how the internet is both a double-edged sword because it helps spread information about a cause and causes awareness, but it also promotes and increases dangerous and violent natures too. Through the internet, people are able to become aware of certain issues through Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc., which allows the community or many communities to come together to fight for the cause. However, this in turn does not do very much, as we discussed in class. One can only do so much on the internet. For example, the recent events happening in France is something that most of us learned through the internet. Facebook allowed its users to change their profile picture to show support to the cause. However, that is all that we can do to show our support, and it is not like changing our profile picture will do anything. The internet can only do so much as to provide information and a way of communication. It is up to the people to figure out how to use the internet to their advantage.

Question: Since the internet has been constantly evolving, is there a way for the people of the world to support one another through the internet?

Work Cited:

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline. "Social Transformations from Virtual Communities." Transnationalizing Viet Nam: Community, Culture, and Politics in the Diaspora. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2012. 65-89. Print.

http://www.goodnepal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/France-Flag-Profile-Picture-Make-Your-Facebook-Profile-Picture-Overlay-with-Flag-of-France-on-Supporting-Against-Terrorist-Bomb-Attack-on-Paris.jpg