Virtual Generation Gaps and What Is “Community”

Abstract

There is a certain nostalgia some people hold regarding the stereotype of the “lesbian potluck” or the “Sunday gay brunch,” the “lesbian softball team” and the “queer camping trips” that are embedded in the memories of many LBGT individuals who came of age at the height of the Gay/Lesbian Rights Movement of the 1970s–1980s. These physical spaces where queer folks gathered to talk politics, commune with like-identified individuals, and find support and acceptance in a world that was generally hostile were a lifeline and a coming-of-age and coming-out-of-the closet cornerstone. Due to the migration to digital communication and community and an increasing cultural tolerance for LGBT people, these physical spaces are receding or have disappeared, replaced or overshadowed by listservs, social networking, dating websites, and other digital communication. However, we need to take care not to romanticize this view of the LGBT community of a bygone era. Not everyone had a potluck or a bowling group and not every LGBT social group was an ideal community of support. Still, many older LGBT people lament the loss of the physical spaces and “real-world” communities that were part of the 1970s–1990s, attributing this loss to the digital age. Whether or not the demise of these physical spaces/groups is a direct result of our digitized culture is anyone’s speculation. Whether or not a digital community can/should replace a physical space can only be determined by each individual. Many people, for various reasons, prefer and draw energy from physical groups, others prefer and draw energy from digital communities, and many use both as a way of finding community and identity in the twenty-first century.