Viewing cybercommunities through the lens of modernity: the case of Second Life

The growth of cybercommunities is a notable social phenomenon. Empirical studies of cybercommunities have described new forms of social behaviour that call for deeper conceptual analysis. Drawing on evidence from our research in the cybercommunity Second Life, the authors examine the sociology of cybercommunities through the lens of Giddens’ abstract theories of modernity. In particular, the authors suggest that an individual’s participation in cybercommunities may be gauged using a spectrum of individual responses to particular abstract conditions of modernity. These abstract conditions have interpretations ranging from seeking refuge from the vicissitudes of the real world to pursuing the playful heights of modernity.