Most of my Rave "friends" are not close friends. They are people I have met at events, have partied with, and have gotten to know loosely over the years. Rave keeps us connected. I have over 100 "friends" on my profile from the Montreal rave scene, most of whom I have never spent any initimate time with. And yet I feel very close to these people. The intense ephemeral experiences that we live together on dance floors all over the city (and province) are maintained through brief textual exchanges on Rave. Today, I got an invitation from a Rave "friend" to a Goodbye Party celebrating the closing of a venue that was once the site of many events (a semi-legal residential loft space in Griffintown). This friend would have had no way of inviting me if Rave did not exist. We have never exchanged phone numbers, emails, or any other kind of personal information. We see each other sporadically when our paths cross, and when we do run into each other, the dynamic of our friendship is actually very natural. What I mean, is that even though the quality of this friendship may be "bridging" (to use Ellison et al. 2007 classification scheme) rather than "bonding", my friend and I interact in a relaxed and habitual fashion... that is, like real friends! Essentially Rave provides the technology for virtual as well as face to face networking.
This is our community. Simply being present on the site; having a profile and logging in from time to time, establishes community membership. I do not engage in many intercations with my Rave freinds on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. On rare occasions I will leave messages on friend's profiles after seeing them at events and having interesting exchanges with them. Last week I ran into another friend at an event, we talked for awhile over beers and loud music, and the next day he left me a message on my Rave profile. I reciprocated by leaving a comment on his profile. This exchange is significant. By leaving a message on my profile, my friend was reinvigorating our friendship-connection, and my reciprocation was a confirmation of this. Had I not responded, the solidarity of our social tie would not be as strong.
Rave's great strength from my perspective is it's ability to create and maintain social newtorks that would otherwise disolve in the weeks and months of intervening silence between actual electronic music events. It offers a sense of continuity to a nightlife lifestyle which is by it's very nature ephemeral. I'm curious if other Canadian cities have SNSs for their electronic music communities and whether they offer the same degree of community integration? A comparative study would shed light on the specific dynamics of Rave.
Work Cited:
Ellison, Nicole B., Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lampe. 2007. The Benefits of Facebook "Freinds": Social Capital and College Students Use of Online Social Network Sites. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html
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