The sense of belonging differs from person to person in a mediated world

We have very meaningful discussions last week concerning if we can achieve the sense of belonging to a community in a mediated world. From Morley’s and Barney’s articles, we get a sense that the meaning of “home” is not restricted to physical place but can be a “place” where a person is “at ease with the rhetoric of those with whom they share a life”. However, what exactly does “sharing a life” mean? Is the experience of “sharing a life” identical among different persons?

We can say, everyone is the same, or, everyone is different. It depends on what the criterion is and how one perceives sameness and difference. So the feeling of “sharing a life” differs from person to person.

For example, there are people who voluntarily immerse themselves in internet space and enjoy the feeling of sharing life with those belonging to the same imagined communities, due to their high level of participations and their intentions to intermingle the virtual identities with their everyday lives (i.e., they might extend virtual relationship to real life activities). There are people who find watching homeland’s television programs the best way to feel a sense of belonging to their homeland; and find watching host-country’s television programs the best way to experience the real community they are residing in. There are people who feel at home only at physical space with family members. There are people feel isolated even through real interactions in real world.

Should we take into account personal preference in our discussions about the way to acquire a sense of belonging to a community? To say it one step further, should we consider personal difference when studying the issues of globalization, hybridity and flows?

Besides this, I also want to say a few words related to my own experience. I think even within the same community, there are many sub-communities. The feeling of belonging can be very complicated. As a new comer from Mainland China to Canada, when interacting with CBC (Canadian Born Chinese) or those who only speak Cantonese (a widely spoken dialect among Chinese diasporas), I sometimes feel as a minority amongst minority. As is shown in this survey, Cantonese is the main dialect spoken by Chinese community members in Canada. Yes, we all belong to the same cultural background, but do we really belong to the same community? Do I feel at home when talking with them using English because it is the only mutual language we speak?