Reading Comprehension

PT112 · S2 · P1 · Q4 Computer Conferences

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Traditionally, members of a community such as a town or neighborhood share a common location and a sense of necessary interdependence that includes, for example, mutual respect and emotional support.

Topic

Can online computer conferences truly substitute for traditional, place-based communities?

Framework

Old / New (with elements of Challenge Position)

Main Point

While online computer conferences can foster respectful and supportive relationships with their own etiquette, they ultimately lack the essential qualities found in traditional geographic communities—such as diversity and involuntary participation—and are not a true substitute. (The main point is encapsulated in the last sentence of the passage.)

P1: Traditional Communities vs. Modern Changes

This paragraph introduces what traditional communities are and highlights how technology and modern social alienation reduce those classic interactions, with some advocates suggesting that new, tech-based "computer conferences" could take their place.

P2: How Advocates Say Online Conferences Function as Communities

We hear specifics about how computer conferences work: people bond over shared interests, develop their own online etiquettes and codes, and even support each other emotionally—almost as if it’s a real community.

P3: Why Computer Conferences Aren't Real Communities

Here, the author pushes back, explaining that online conferences are limited—they’re accessible only to those with resources and knowledge, cater to self-selected participants, and lack the diversity and inadvertent mingling that happen in real communities. The author concludes that these online forums, while comfortable, could actually isolate people from the richness of real-life, local engagement.

4.

Given the information in the passage, the author can most reasonably be said to use which one of the following principles to refute the advocates' claim that computer conferences can function as communities (last sentence of the first paragraph)?

  1. A group is a community

    Bad Trigger Match

    This gives us a potentially usable rule: members aren't mutually respectful or → not a community members aren't supportive of each other Did the author say that computer conferences aren't respectful or aren't supportive? No, the opposite. He concedes in the 2nd paragraph that members of these conferences are respectful and supportive.

    2% picked this

  2. A group is a community

    Bad Trigger Match

    This gives us a potentially usable rule: members don't adopt conventions intended to → not a community help them respect each other's sensibilities Did the author say that members of computer conferences don't adopt conventions to help them respect each other's sensibilities. No, the opposite if anything. He concedes in the 2nd paragraph that members have adopted "certain conventions in recognition of the importance of respecting each others' sensibilities."

    2% picked this

  3. A group is a community

    Bad Trigger Match

    This gives us a potentially usable rule: members don't inhabit the same geographic → not a community location Did the author say that members of computer conferences don't inhabit the same geographic location? Nope. Obviously our common sense about the internet suggests that they don't, but that's not a premise the author offered for why these computer conferences fail to qualify as communities. The author says they're not communities because they discriminate along economic/educational lines and don't exhibit the genuine diversity of non-intentional, non-self-selecting communities like towns or neighborhoods.

    27% picked this

  4. A group is a community

    Bad Trigger Match

    This gives us a potentially usable rule: members aren't from same educational or → not a community economic background Did the author say that members of computer conferences aren't from the same educational / economic background? No, the opposite. He told us that they are from the same educational / economic background, and that that's partly why they're not a real community.

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    A group is a community

    Why this is right

    This gives us a potentially usable rule: members don't feel interdependence → not a community despite different econ and educational backgrounds This is a super weird trigger, but it's our best available match. The answer is saying a requirement of calling something a community is that the members have different economic / educational backgrounds but nonetheless feel connected to each other. The author's gripe with calling these computer conferences 'communities' is that they "discriminate along educational and economic lines". In other words, the people there belong to similar educational and economic backgrounds. The last sentence of the passage helps as well --- there, the author is saying that in a real community, you have people with genuine diversity of age / career / personal interests being smushed together. It's harder to find "common ground" but it's rewarding when you feel interdependence despite the diversity.

    Skill tested: Principle · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    68% picked this

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