Tutorial Six: Online Communities

During this tute we were required to investigate an online community.
The community I choose was The Low Down.
http;//www.thelowdown.co.nz/#/home/

This community focuses on helping young kiwis understand and deal with depresion.

This service provides / allows individuals with problems to contact The Low Down team through texting which is free and email. There is plenty of information on this site reguarding depression, symptoms of depression, facts, questions and answers, what should I do, how do I know if I am depressed and they also have what they call a "Depressed Test" for people to take. There is an interactive chatroom where people share there problems and ideas with each other and provide support. The Low Down also offers other sites and ideas like links to inspiration and community sites, mental health services, specialist communities, depression helpline and help strategies for depression.

I was unable to copy and paste some of the content on The Low Down website because you can not do this weather you are a member or not but you are able to go into the chatroom and read comments but to reply back you must register.

An potential ethical issue mat arise is others not being supportive and challenging ones behaviour but in saying that "The Low Down" chatroom is consistently monitored by their team.

The benefits of this online community over traditional notion is no one knows who you are, it allows the individual to speak their mind and connect with others in similiar situations, even when you live in a isolated area the individual is still able to share their thoughts without intimation.

This is a really good community but it does lack physical support that a traditional community can provide for the individual also the individual will not be online in this community 24/7 unlike with their traditional community where support can be provided around the clock for them.