Virtual Community and the Millennial Generation: An Investigation of Authentic Qualities of Community via the Internet For Canadian Christian Youth

Abstract

Within each of us, there exists a need to be connected with others. The need to belong to someone or something is integral to whom we are as God's creation. In this search to be connected, youth are usually known to be the first on the scene to access the new technologies that bring them closer in touch with each other. Historically, youth have embraced the telephone, the television and the radio, among other various technologies. In the past decade there has been a monumental shift in the way people communicate with each other. With the revolution of the Internet and its related technologies, youth are able to extend their friendship circles far beyond the borders of culture, time and economy. This dissertation is an examination of the responses of231 Canadian youth (aged 13 to 23) and their thoughts about the characteristics of virtual community on the Internet as a means of initiating, cultivating and maintaining relationships. Reginald Bibby and Donald Posterski in their seminal work with Project Teen Canada in the early 1980's determined there had been a shift in values from teens highly valuing family and other significant relationships to developing a high value for peers and friends. One of the purposes of this work is to examine the extension of those significant friendships and relationships through the exploding popularity of the Internet. The qualities of community will be examined both from sociological and theological viewpoints. One of the questions in this study is: "Can the Internet provide a forum for authentic Christian community?". Or is it glorified technology that is merely a continuing step in our evolution as a society of communicators?