The Internet Community as a Phenomenon of Modern Network Culture (on the example of the KVN community in the social network VKontakte)

Abstract

This paper discusses the characteristics and specific features of the Internet community ‘I love KVN’, whereas identifying user tokens in a network group are shown during their adaptation in the community. The author considers users’ techniques and virtual tools (audio recordings, video recordings, text publications, images, animated images, posters, polls, etc.). The Internet, as unique in terms of the its conditions and possibilities, makes it possible to study sociological phenomena that were not actualized or so accessible to empirical study in different environment of activity and interaction. This is relevant in the light of the rapid development of thematic communities on the VKontakte social network. According to the Levada Center analytical center, today about 72% of the population of the Russia use the Internet “daily or almost daily” and “several times a week”. At the same time, about 45% of citizens go online “several times a day”; these are, first of all, the youngest Russians under the age of 25 (87%). The focus of our consideration is the group on VKontakte “I love KVN”. KVN (The Club of Cheerful and Inventive) is one of the first projects that appeared on domestic television in the format of a humorous game, in which teams (educational institutions, universities, enterprises, cities and so on) compete in humorous answers to questions asked, improvisations on given topics, playing pre-prepared scenes. In the narrow sense, KVN is a competition in one’s own wit. The long-term history of the project (since 1961) and the relentless attention to the game from the mass audience determined in many respects the appearance of communities of lovers of intellectual humorous competitions on various types of venues. With the advent of social networks on the Internet, many KVN fans have joined together in a community that currently numbers approximately 670 thousand people.