Virtual Society

     One of the most striking forms of technological change is offered by the Internet. Relatively less than 10 years ago, the Internet began as an extension of ARPANET – a government project designed to link computers for military purposes. As recently as 1995, about the best a civilian could do was to use a system known as LYNX. It allowed a user to search three or four sites, but only in a textual sense. There were no pictures or fancy flash components that we know of in today’s Internet. This example is notable in that people take the Internet for granted – they do not realize its newness.

     Initially, the uses of the Internet were geared to information-gathering purposes. Intellectuals used the web to get information about research topics and to share that information with others. The advancement of e-mail allowed people to communicate with one another without the use of the telephone. Initially, through services like Compuserv, individuals could only communicate with others internally – within their same network. Today, an individual can have an e-mail with one service provider and communicate with an individual across the world who has a different service provider. Soon the Internet became a place for community – whether real or imagined.

     The next revolution on the Internet is that of commerce. As mentioned earlier, the revolution did not guarantee success for all. Though computer entrepreneurs such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates have made millions, many smaller e-businesses went under in California’s Silicon Valley because of a market over-saturated with products and services. At the same time as the commerce revolution, individuals began to use the Internet for social purposes, including dating and self-help. The subject of Internet dating and marriage has entered the world of popular magazines and television shows, often with the illustration that people who meet and connect on the Internet are unable to peacefully coexist in person. A question at the end of the chapter will elicit your opinion on this matter.

Internet Revolution

     The revolution that is potentially still waiting to happen is that of the Internet polis – the idea that the Internet can be used to further the causes of democracy, including voting and debating greater issues of the society. In his The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1991) Juergen Habermas argues that the public sphere – the place where citizens of a democratic society gather to debate issues and decide the course of the nation – is essentially made impossible in a society dominated by the media and entertainment. Others are more optimistic about the use of the Internet as a space for democracy. MTV has used its network and its Internet site to get young citizens to vote and get involved in political efforts. The famous site MoveOn.org used the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal as an inspiration to found a political movement on the Internet. MoveOn is now one of the largest political groups on the Internet. Some, such as social scientist Sherry Turkle (see the links to her readings below), have said that the fluidity and anonymity of the Internet allows for the formation of a new era of Internet community. GeoCities offers “neighborhoods” as a feature of its Internet services, and many communities, such as Blacksburg, Virginia – where 87% of the residents are online (Etzioni 2003) – use the Internet to create community outside the material sense. Sociological studies of Internet usage are conflicting as to the effect of prolonged use – some suggest that increased computer use creates anti-social individuals, while others offer that using the Internet can increase the sociality of an individual (Etzioni 2003).

     Whether the Internet becomes the social community that some thinkers have predicted remains to be seen, but it is clear that sociologists will no doubt continue to study the ways in which the Internet influences our social worlds both materially and virtually.

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