Practicum #2

Recently, I received four responses to my discussion post. I posted:
"hi there! i'm new to daily strength and as a vegetarian with few vegetarian friends, i thought it would be good to connect with other people who eat like i do. i'm wondering how joining this community has benefited you? looking forward to meeting everyone!"

A member from Chicago offered me some vegetarian restaurant recommendations and also explained that the dailystrength board is pretty small with 6-10 regulars, but "it is a good place to ask questions and it is important not to feel isolated." Two other posts were from other new members, agreeing that when sticking with vegetarianism it is important to surround yourself with other like-minded people.

One of the group leaders seems to be "lovescrappy", a user who comments on nearly every discussion post. She wrote to me, "Welcome newcomers! I like posting here because I feel that I can talk about how I really feel with regards to animal rights etc without offending anyone.
The world isn't vegan yet, so coming here gives me hope and gives me a glimpse of what the world could be like :)"

Although she is welcoming, I did sense a tinge of group polarization here. A lot of these people enjoy the site because they can speak about being vegetarian with out offending people, but in doing so they fail to realize that they are openly criticizing others. By isolating themselves in this community, they allow themselves the leeway to attack meat-eaters. I read another discussion post in which lovescrappy and another group leader bashed meat-eaters for being envious and guilty. Because there is no alternative voice on this group support site, they are able to reaffirm eachother's beliefs all the while being incredibly closedminded.