In 2017 Facebook presented its vision to be a platform for the global community. In 2018, a year after the announcement, 1.4 billion people were members of Facebook groups, of which 200 million were members of significant groups and as defined by Facebook, communities. In 2020, about 60% of the adults and about 69% of the youth in Israel felt that "networks make you feel part of the community". These data show that the social network Facebook is an important player in the community arena. This qualitative study seeks to examine the perception of managers of geographic Facebook communities regarding the definition and purpose of these communities. This understanding will help deepen the place of geographic Facebook communities on community life and examine whether the geographic Facebook community is a community 'without kinship' or whether it complements and expands the traditional community. The data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with fifteen geographic Facebook community managers. Informed by thematic analysis the findings indicate that Geographic Facebook communities exist not only online but have meaning in real life such as friendships, mutual help, problem solving, etc. The interactivity between the spaces - online and physical - blurs the distinction between them. The Facebook community is perceived as a geographical meeting space similar to a playground or a neighborhood restaurant. The research findings sharpen that the distinction between the geographic community and the geographic Facebook community is almost imperceptible and that there is an interaction between the two communities or in fact between the different spaces of the same community. These communities allow the members of the community a new and useful opportunity to build and maintain community ties and develop a sense of community belonging even beyond the physical geographic limitations. This is a paradigm shift in the concept of community development - moving from involvement that is limited by the physical space, to involvement that also takes place through the online space. Dealing and developing both spaces foster connectivity within and between communities.
