The first question I asked participants aimed to get information about what participants consider member activities to be. Content analysis allowed for a frequency count of member activities reported. These can be seen in the graph below.
The first thing that stands out is that members reported many different types of activities, which means that the idea of participation differs from member to member. I classified the activities reported as follows:
Passive participation
Watching videos and following main social media accounts. These activities don’t reflect an emotional connection or the existence of shared values, but they reflect personal relatedness (part of the definition of membership.)
Active participation: Creating bonds
The most reported activity by participants was “engaging with Nerdfighters”, a code used every time a respondent reported actively communicating with other Nerdfighters or having relationships with them. Many participants mentioned they were part of a specific Nerdfighter Facebook group specialized by location or interest. Others simply reported they had Nerdfighter friends. Moreover, some respondents reported that part of their activities included meeting Nerdfighters “in real life.”
“ I discuss the topics given, support other members of the community through tough spots, watch the videos and turn to my Nerdfighter family when I need support and guidance.”
The next activity included was labeled “Gatherings and Events”, which refers to any mentions of attending official Nerdfighter meet-ups, which are events of various sizes organized by members that happen all over the world. Lastly, this category also includes those activities that reflect active interactions that occur thanks to the technological affordances of the specific social media sites visited by the Nerdfighters. This includes “Comments” and “Reblogs”. It also includes “Debate and/or Share”, which refers to actively participating in the sharing and discussion of ideas with other Nerdfighters online.
“I comment on Vlogbrothers videos and purchase content made for fans of the Vlogbrothers and the community. I contributed to forums for a while and have a few Nerdfighter friends who I discuss topics bought up in the videos and related materials at length on a semi regular basis.”
These activities reflect three particular dimensions from the variable sense of community. Membership is reflected because being able to develop relationships with others means that members feel a level of personal relatedness and of belonging. Needs fulfillment is reflected because the relationships that members develop within this community fulfill their social needs. And finally, Influence and Shared emotional connection is the construct that is most reflected by this activity, as members who actively engage with each other are necessarily influencing each other, while at the same time developing an emotional connection.
Personal behaviors
Activities in this category are not typically group activities, but individual ones. Nonetheless, respondents reported that they perform these different pursuits while in their roles as members of the community. These activities include reading and learning. Members reported these activities because they believe that part of what makes them Nerdfighters is that they are actually “nerds”, which in general terms means they enjoy intellectualism. The fact that these activities, which are usually solitary activities, are reported as part of the community activities is significant because it reflects a personal commitment members have to reflect what the community upholds.
“I watch the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, the LBD channel, Sanditon channel, Mental Floss, and occasionally Crash Course. And SciShow. I also proudly wear my Keep Calm & DFTBA shirt and next year at university, I shall proudly display my Nerdfighter poster in my dorm room. I also share the videos with friends and encourage them to watch more videos and help spread the awesome. And I read and educate myself in the name of Nerdfighteria.”
These activities reflect Needs fulfillment, as participants’ personal need to learn or read are fulfilled not only by his or her own private actions, but also by the fact that they can share these deeds with others in the community.
The idea of “being awesome” as something one does as a member of the Nerdfighter community was another highly reported activity, in general explained as being a good, positive, and productive person.
“I watch the YouTube channels (especially Crash Course and SciShow), follow the Nerdfighters subreddit and John Green's Tumblr, read all of John's books, and have begun my own project of writing a poem every day, in order to increase my personal awesomeness.”
Even more passive members reported this personal behavior as a member activity:
“I'm not an active Nerdfighter. I often passively watch the videos, and don't comment. But being a Nerdfighter has changed and developed my critical thinking skills about the world around me. Everyday decisions I make and discussions I have are as a result of me celebrating my nerdiness because I'm a Nerdfighter.”
This activity mostly reflects Influence; in this case, members are influencing each other to becoming better people. It is also a reflection of Shared Values, as is further explored in this post.
Fundraising activities
Several fundraising activities were mentioned in this category, but although the Project for Awesome and the Kiva project were mentioned, they were not as extensive as expected (they were mentioned 12% and 8% of the times.)
Promoting Nerdfighter culture
This activity includes mentions of actively promoting or spreading the word about the community in order to involve more people. This activity reflects Influence, as members are influencing community growth with their actions.
This series of posts explores the answers to the open-ended questions from the online survey of this research. Through content analysis, I extracted the most recurrent, frequent and extensive themes and topics participants discussed in their responses. The results are summarized in these posts.
See analysis by theme:
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