Out of Place: Digital In-Grouping

Since the maturation of the mobile network and a pervasive immersion into social media, the concept of community has been irrevocably dislocated from traditional geographical interactions. Establishing what adequately characterises born or predominately digital groupings is being investigated and discussed in academic, public and civic arenas. Both the positive and negative positions have been voiced. Our "always on, always-connected" status (Antonelli 2008) has created a close and some would argue dependent psychological relationship with our technologies (Charles 2011). If we consider that these technologies have significantly changed our practical reality, a reality where human experience and technical artifact have, for many, become inseparable, and that we now live within a "life mix" (Turkle 2012) or pressured "cycle of responsiveness" (Perlow 2008) then traditional concepts of how community is enacted using (deleterious or not) technologies merits review. This paper will look specifically at the heavy-user Flash developer/designer community and employ Social Identity Theory (SIT) (Turner & Tajfel 1979) as a means to interrogate how far technology has bypassed or developed established SIT concepts such as community, categorisation and identity.