AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTISTHampton, Wellman / C MMUNITY IN HE NETWORK SOCIETY COMMUNITY STUDIES OF THE INTERNET Long Distance Community in the Network Society Contact and Support Beyond Netville

The authors examine the experience of the residents of Netville, a suburban neighborhood with access to some of the most advanced new communication technologies available, and how this technology affected the amount of contact and support exchanged with members of their distant social networks. Focusing exclusively on friends and relatives external to the neighborhood of Netville, the authors analyze community as relations that provide a sense of belonging rather than as a group of people living near each other. Computer-mediated com-munication (CMC) is treated as one of several means of communication used in the mainte-nance of social networks. Contrary to expectations that the Internet encourages a global vil-lage, those ties that previously were just out of reach geographically experience the greatest increase in contact and support as a result of access to CMC. COMMUNITIES AS SOCIAL NETWORKS: ON AND OFF THE INTERNET We usually think of communities as idyllic neighborhoods, where neighbors visit each other’s private homes, chat on street corners, and get together in local cafes and bars (Oldenburg, 1999). This image is broadly shared by the public, the media, politicians, and indeed scholars, for whom a community study means going to a neighborhood and seeing what transpires there (Wellman & Leighton