Reading Comprehension

PT112 · S2 · P1 · Q6 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.

Which one of the following, if true, would most weaken one of the author's arguments in the last paragraph?

Participants in computer conferences are
No Impact: accepting of diversity
The author's concern is that computer conferences lack diversity, not that they fail to embrace diversity. You could have a group of the most open-minded tolerant people, but if they're all upper middle class moms with college degrees discussing the private school application process, the author's argument would remain that they don't have enough diversity to qualify as a community.
13% picked this
Correct
Computer technology is rapidly becoming
Why this is right
This punches back at the 2nd sentence of the final paragraph, which is saying that conferences aren't communities because the bar of entry is having basic knowledge of computers and the ability to afford access to the internet. The author is arguing that this bar of entry is high enough that the people who make it into a computer conference are going to tend to be more highly educated (know how to use a computer) and affluent (can afford internet). This answer is saying, "Not so fast -- computers are rapidly becoming available to a wide variety of backgrounds, so the fact that computer conferences take place on internet-ready computers is not really going to segregate users into a specific type of educational / economic background." If computers are rapidly diffusing to the whole population, then the author can't say that computer conferences fail to be a community because they're a "country club" that prices out most of the population.
Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
78% picked this
Participants in computer conferences often
No Objection to Author's Reasoning
The author admits in the 2nd paragraph that users of these computer conferences are quite respectful and supporting of each other. That has nothing to do with why he thinks that these conferences fail to qualify as communities. To attack the author's logic, we either have to say, "No, no no -- there is genuine diversity within these conferences" or we have to argue, "Sure there isn't genuine diversity; but they are still communities because ..." None of the author's arguments in the final paragraph deal with support or respect, so this answer isn't weakening one of the arguments in the final paragraph.
5% picked this
Participants in computer conferences often
Strengthens, if anything
Since this is saying that people behave differently in computer conferences because of their anonymity, this is sounding very unlike actual communities, where your neighbors would definitely know your identity. Thus, it's helping the author's case that these aren't communities.
2% picked this
The conventions used to facilitate
No Impact
We might say that, like (D), this points out a difference between online conferences and actual communities, so it's helping the author to argue that these online conferences aren't the same as actual communities. We could also say that "conventions used to facilitate communication" is a topic in the 2nd paragraph, whereas this question is asking us to target something discussed in the last paragraph.
3% picked this

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