Howard Rheingold's essay, "Introduction to the Virtual Community," attempts to open the virtual world's gates to those people who have neither thought nor sought to enter. Rheingold believes that big business, the media, and the American government want to restrict our freedoms of speech as well as the rights to uncensored alternative media and information networks. He wants to preserve the freedoms granted to us by the Internet and has spoken out: "I care deeply about the future of a medium that allows us to assemble" (64).

Rheingold claims that much of the mainstream news is biased. American media is controlled by a select few, the status quo. The media shapes and is shaped by a society. Therefore, it is the best interest of big business to portray the news in a way that is beneficial to fueling the capitalistic culture we live in. He believes some mainstream media, especially news networks, serve as public relations/ advertising firms to the businesses that control media dissemination.

In contrast to most popular media, the Internet's greatest power is its ability to equalize people. Regardless of race, color, gender, age, isolation, abilities, or disabilities, we are all equal in the virtual world. The voiceless classes are able to speak out on the Internet. Grassroots democracy and policy making are back and stronger than ever. The last forums structured similarly to ones available online were the early Greek and Roman city state assemblies. The Internet has once again empowered society with this same freedom of speech. It has given us the ability to voice our opinions and control our media. Cyber cafes, chatrooms, bulletin boards, listservs, newsgroups and watchdog sites are all forums in which regular people can socialize, converse, debate, reflect, and speak out. These cyber communities could not exist as one-sided mainstream fora. By nature, they require at least two opinions or two sources to exist. Virtual communities have taken the news from the status quo and returned it to the people for evaluation and contemplation.

Rheingold's theory is accurate for the most part. The Internet equalizes power amongst the classes. The Internet allows people to state their views and voice their opinions as well as discuss and learn from others. His essay requires some Internet knowledge and vocabulary to comprehend. His use of acronyms and jargon would leave most people baffled. He also fails to recognize the significance of face-to-face interaction amongst people. It is unhealthy to derive all of one's socialization and education from computers. The computer has multiple media and perspectives availible to it, which all have on thing in common--the electronic medium itself. One should attempt to derive perspectives and opinions from a wide array of mediums and people. A little mental independence and textual balance will help us to become a well-informed community, both virtually and physically.

Rheingold, Howard. "Introduction to The Virtual Community." CyberReader. 2nd ed. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. 63-77.