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Sociology of the Internet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The sociology of the Internet involves the application of sociological theory and method to the
Internet as a source of information and communication. Sociologists are concerned with the social
implications of the technology; new social networks, virtual communities and ways of interaction that
have arisen, as well as issues related to cyber crime.
The Internetthe newest in a series of major information breakthroughsis of interest for sociologists
in various ways: as a tool for research, for example, in using online questionnaires instead of paper
ones, as a discussion platform, and as a research topic. The sociology of the Internet in the stricter
sense concerns the analysis of online communities (e.g. as found in newsgroups), virtual communities
and virtual worlds, organizational change catalyzed through new media such as the Internet, and social
change at-large in the transformation from industrial to informational society (or to information
society). Online communities can be studied statistically through network analysis and at the same
time interpreted qualitatively, such as through virtual ethnography. Social change can be studied
through statistical demographics or through the interpretation of changing messages and symbols in
online media studies.

Contents
1 Emergence of the discipline
2 Research trends
3 Social impact
3.1 Political organization and censorship
3.2 Economics
3.3 Philanthropy
3.4 Leisure
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

Emergence of the discipline

The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon. As Robert Darnton wrote, it is a revolutionary change
that "took place yesterday, or the day before, depending on how you measure it."[1] The Internet
developed from the ARPANET, dating back to 1969; as a term it was coined in 1974. The World Wide
Web as we know it was shaped in the mid-1990s, when graphical interface and services like email
became popular and reached wider (non-scientific and non-military) audiences and commerce.[1][2]
Internet Explorer was first released in 1995; Netscape a year earlier. Google was founded in 1998.[1][2]
Wikipedia was founded in 2001. Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube in the mid-2000s. Web 2.0 is still
emerging. Steadily, the amount of information available on the net and the number of Internet users
worldwide has continued to grow rapidly.[2] The term 'digital sociology' is now becoming increasingly
used to denote new directions in sociological research into digital technologies since Web 2.0.

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Research trends
According to DiMaggio et al. (2001),[2] research tends to focus on the Internet's implications in five
domains:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

inequality (the issues of digital divide)

community and social capital (the issues of time displacement)
political participation (the issues of public sphere, deliberative democracy and civil society)
organizations and other economic institutions
cultural participation and cultural diversity

Early on, there were predictions that the Internet would change everything (or nothing); over time,
however, a consensus emerged that the Internet, at least in the current phase of development,
complements rather than displaces previously implemented media.[2] This has meant a rethinking of the
1990s ideas of "convergence of new and old media". Further, the Internet offers a rare opportunity to
study changes caused by the newly emerged - and likely, still evolving - information and
communication technology (ICT).[2]

Social impact
The Internet has created new forums of social interaction and social relations including social
networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace and sites such as meetup.com and Couchsurfing
which facilitate offline interaction.
Though virtual communities were once thought to be composed of strictly virtual social ties,
researchers often find that even those social ties formed in virtual spaces are often maintained both
online and offline [3][4]
There are ongoing debates about the impact of the Internet on strong and weak ties, whether the
internet is creating more or less social capital,[5][6] the internet's role in trends towards social isolation,
[7]

and whether it creates a more or less diverse social environment.

It is often said the Internet is a new frontier, and there is a line of argument to the effect that social
interaction, cooperation and conflict among users resembles the anarchistic and violent American
frontier of the early 19th century.[8]
In March 2014, researchers from the University of Benedictine at Mesa in Arizona studied how online
interactions affect face-to-face meetings. The study is titled, Face to Face Versus Facebook: Does
Exposure to Social Networking Web Sites Augment or Attenuate Physiological Arousal Among the
Socially Anxious, published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.[9] They analyzed
26 female students with electrodes to measure social anxiety. Prior to meeting people, the students
were shown pictures of the subject they were expected to meet. Researchers found that meeting
someone face-to-face after looking at their photos increases arousal, which the study linked to an
increase in social anxiety. These findings confirm previous studies that found that socially anxious
people prefer online interactions. The study also recognized that the stimulated arousal can be
associated with positive emotions and could lead to positive feelings.[10]

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Recent research has taken the Internet of Things within its purview, as global networks of
interconnected everyday objects are said to be the next step in technological advancement.[11]
Certainly, global space- and earth-based newtworks are expanding coverage of the IoT at a fast pace.
This has a wide variety of consequences, with current applications in the health, agriculture, traffic and
retail fields.[12] Companies such as Samsung and Sigfox have invested heavily in said networks, and
their social impact will have to be measured accordingly, with some sociologists suggesting the
formation of socio-technical networks of humans and technical systems.[13][14] Issues of privacy, right
to information, legislation and content creation will come into public scrutiny in light of these
technological changes.[15][12]

Political organization and censorship

The Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The presidential campaign of Howard
Dean in 2004 in the United States became famous for its ability to generate donations via the Internet,
and the 2008 campaign of Barack Obama became even more so. Increasingly, social movements and
other organizations use the Internet to carry out both traditional and the new Internet activism.
Governments are also getting online. Some countries, such as those of Cuba, Iran, North Korea,
Myanmar, the People's Republic of China, and Saudi Arabia use filtering and censoring software to
restrict what people in their countries can access on the Internet. In the United Kingdom, they also use
software to locate and arrest various individuals they perceive as a threat. Other countries including the
United States, have enacted laws making the possession or distribution of certain material such as child
pornography illegal but do not use filtering software. In some countries Internet service providers have
agreed to restrict access to sites listed by police.

Economics
While much has been written of the economic advantages of internet-enabled commerce, there is also
evidence that some aspects of the internet such as maps and location-aware services may serve to
reinforce economic inequality and the digital divide.[16] Electronic commerce may be responsible for
consolidation and the decline of mom-and-pop, brick and mortar businesses resulting in increases in
income inequality.[17]

Philanthropy
The spread of low-cost internet access in developing countries has opened up new possibilities for
peer-to-peer charities, which allow individuals to contribute small amounts to charitable projects for
other individuals. Websites such as Donors Choose and Global Giving now allow small-scale donors
to direct funds to individual projects of their choice.
A popular twist on internet-based philanthropy is the use of peer-to-peer lending for charitable
purposes. Kiva pioneered this concept in 2005, offering the first web-based service to publish
individual loan profiles for funding. Kiva raises funds for local intermediary microfinance
organizations which post stories and updates on behalf of the borrowers. Lenders can contribute as
little as $25 to loans of their choice, and receive their money back as borrowers repay. Kiva falls short
of being a pure peer-to-peer charity, in that loans are disbursed before being funded by lenders and
borrowers do not communicate with lenders themselves.[18][19] However, the recent spread of cheap
internet access in developing countries has made genuine peer-to-peer connections increasingly
feasible. In 2009 the US-based nonprofit Zidisha tapped into this trend to offer the first peer-to-peer
microlending platform to link lenders and borrowers across international borders without local

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intermediaries. Inspired by interactive websites such as Facebook and eBay, Zidisha's microlending
platform facilitates direct dialogue between lenders and borrowers and a performance rating system for
borrowers. Web users worldwide can fund loans for as little as a dollar.[20]

Leisure
The Internet has been a major source of leisure since before the World Wide Web, with entertaining
social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humorrelated Usenet groups receiving much of the main traffic. Today, many Internet forums have sections
devoted to games and funny videos; short cartoons in the form of Flash movies are also popular. Over
6 million people use blogs or message boards as a means of communication and for the sharing of
ideas.
The pornography and gambling industries have both taken full advantage of the World Wide Web, and
often provide a significant source of advertising revenue for other websites. Although governments
have made attempts to censor internet porn, internet service providers have told governments that these
plans are not feasible.[21] Also many governments have attempted to put restrictions on both industries'
use of the Internet, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity.
One area of leisure on the Internet is online gaming. This form of leisure creates communities, bringing
people of all ages and origins to enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from
MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing video games to online gambling. This has
revolutionized the way many people interact and spend their free time on the Internet.
While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with
services such as GameSpy and MPlayer, to which players of games would typically subscribe. Nonsubscribers were limited to certain types of gameplay or certain games.
Many use the Internet to access and download music, movies and other works for their enjoyment and
relaxation. As discussed above, there are paid and unpaid sources for all of these, using centralized
servers and distributed peer-to-peer technologies. Discretion is needed as some of these sources take
more care over the original artists' rights and over copyright laws than others.
Many use the World Wide Web to access news, weather and sports reports, to plan and book holidays
and to find out more about their random ideas and casual interests.
People use chat, messaging and e-mail to make and stay in touch with friends worldwide, sometimes in
the same way as some previously had pen pals. Social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook
and many others like them also put and keep people in contact for their enjoyment.
The Internet has seen a growing number of Web desktops, where users can access their files, folders,
and settings via the Internet.
Cyberslacking has become a serious drain on corporate resources; the average UK employee spends 57
minutes a day surfing the Web at work, according to a study by Peninsula Business Services.[22]

See also
Anthropology of cyberspace
Censorship
Cyber-dissident

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Digital sociology
Political repression of cyber-dissidents
Reporters sans frontires
Social informatics
Social web
Sociology of science and technology
Technology diffusion
Technology and society
Tribe (internet)

Notes
1. Robert Darnton, The Library in the New Age (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21514), The New York
Review of Books, Volume 55, Number 10. June 12, 2008. Retrieved on 22 December 2009.
2. Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, W. Russell Neuman, and John P. Robinson, Social Implications of the
Internet, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 27: 307-336 (Volume publication date August 2001),
doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.307 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1146%2Fannurev.soc.27.1.307) [1]
(http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.307)
3. Lauren F. Sessions, "How offline gatherings affect online community members: when virtual community
members meetup.""Information, Communication, and Society"13,3(April, 2010):375-395
4. Bo Xie, B. The mutual shaping of online and offline social relationships."Information Research, 1,3
(2008):n.p.
5. Lee Rainie, John Horrigan, Barry Wellman, and Jeffrey Boase. (2006)"The Strength of Internet Ties" Pew
Internet and American Life Project. Washington, D.C.
6. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and
college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4).
7. Social Isolation and New Technology Pew Internet and American Life Report
(http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/18--Social-Isolation-and-New-Technology.aspx)
8. Richard Jensen. "Military History on the Electronic Frontier: Wikipedia Fights the War of 1812," The
Journal of Military History (October 2012) 76#4 pp 1165-82 online
(http://www.americanhistoryprojects.com/downloads/JMH1812.PDF)
9. Charles, Megan (7 March 2014). "Meeting Facebook Friends Face To Face Causes Anxiety
(Study)" (http://www.business2community.com/social-buzz/meeting-facebook-friends-face-face-causesanxiety-study-0803603#!yTDAe). Business 2 Community. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
10. Woollaston, Victoria (6 March 2014). "Is Facebook making us socially AWKWARD? Meeting face-to-face
is more difficult after meeting people online" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2574879/IsFacebook-making-socially-AWKWARD-Meeting-face-face-difficult-meeting-people-online.html). Daily
Mail. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
11. Atzori, Luigi; Iera, Antonio; Morabito, Giacomo; Nitti, Michele (2012). "The Social Internet of Things
(SIoT) When social networks meet the Internet of Things: Concept, architecture and network
characterization". Computer Networks 56 (16): 35943608. doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2012.07.010
(https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.comnet.2012.07.010). ISSN 1389-1286
(https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1389-1286).
12. Mattern, Friedemann; Floerkemeier, Christian (2010). "From the Internet of Computers to the Internet of
Things" 6462. pp. 242259. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-17226-7_15 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3642-17226-7_15). ISSN 0302-9743 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0302-9743).
13. Simonite, Tom. "Silicon Valley to Get a Cellular Network, Just for
Things" (http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527376/silicon-valley-to-get-a-cellular-network-just-forthings/). Technology Review. Technology Review. Retrieved 27 May 2015.
14. Kranz, Matthias, Luis Roalter, and Florian Michahelles. "Things that twitter: social networks and the
internet of things." What can the Internet of Things do for the Citizen (CIoT) Workshop at The Eighth
International Conference on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive 2010). 2010.
15. Weber, Rolf H. (2010). "Internet of Things New security and privacy challenges". Computer Law &
Security Review 26 (1): 2330. doi:10.1016/j.clsr.2009.11.008 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1016%
2Fj.clsr.2009.11.008). ISSN 0267-3649 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0267-3649).

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16. "How the Internet Reinforces Inequality in the Real

World" (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2013/02/how-internet-reinforces-inequality-realworld/4602/) The Atlantic February 6, 2013
17. "E-commerce will make the shopping mall a retail wasteland" (http://www.zdnet.com/e-commerce-willmake-the-shopping-mall-a-retail-wasteland-7000009960/) ZDNet, January 17, 2013
18. Kiva Is Not Quite What It Seems (http://blogs.cgdev.org/open_book/2009/10/kiva-is-not-quite-what-itseems.php), by David Roodman, Center for Global Development, Oct. 2, 2009, as accessed Jan. 2 & 16,
2010
19. Confusion on Where Money Lent via Kiva Goes
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/global/09kiva.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Kiva&st=cse), by
Stephanie Strom, in The New York Times, Nov. 8, 2009, as accessed Jan. 2 & 16, 2010
20. "Zidisha Set to "Expand" in Peer-to-Peer Microfinance", Microfinance Focus, Feb 2010
(http://www.microfinancefocus.com/news/2010/02/07/zidisha-set-to-expand-in-peer-to-peer-microfinancejulia-kurnia/)
21. Chivers, Tom (Dec 21, 2010). "Internet pornography block plans: other attempts to control the
internet" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/8215030/Internet-pornography-block-plansother-attempts-to-control-the-internet.html). The Telegraph. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
22. Scotsman.com News - Net abuse hits small city firms (http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?
tid=914&id=1001802003)

References
John A. Bargh and Katelyn Y. A. McKenna, The Internet and Social Life, Annual Review of
Psychology, Vol. 55: 573-590 (Volume publication date February 2004),
doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141922 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1146%
2Fannurev.psych.55.090902.141922) [2]
(http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141922?
journalCode=psych)
Allison Cavanagh, Sociology in the Age of the Internet, McGraw-Hill International, 2007, ISBN
0-335-21725-7
Christine Hine, Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet, Berg Publishers,
2005, ISBN 1-84520-085-3
Rob Kling, The Internet for Sociologists, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Jul., 1997),
pp. 434444
Joan Ferrante-Wallace, Joan Ferrante, Sociology.net: Sociology on the Internet, Thomson
Wadsworth, 1996, ISBN 0-534-52756-6
Daniel A. Menchik and Xiaoli Tian. (2008) "Putting Social Context into Text: The Semiotics of
Email Interaction." (http://menchik.com/Menchik_Tian_AJS.pdf) The American Journal of
Sociology. 114:2 pp. 33270.
Carla G. Surratt, "The Internet and Social Change", McFarland, 2001, ISBN 0-786-41019-1
D. R. Wilson, Researching Sociology on the Internet, Thomson/Wadsworth, 2004, ISBN 0-53462437-5

External links
Sociology and the Internet (http://www.sociology.org.uk/olinset.htm) (A short introduction,
originally put-together for delegates to the ATSS 2000 Conference.)
Peculiarities of Cyberspace - Building Blocks for an Internet Sociology
(http://www.sociosite.org/index_en.php) (Articles the social structure and dynamic of
internetcommunities. Presented by dr Albert Benschop, University of Amsterdam.)
Communication and Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological
Association (http://citasa.org/)

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The Impact of the Internet on Sociology: The Importance of the Communication and
Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological Association
(http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/0/4/1/6/p104169_index.html)
Sociology and the Internet (http://camden-www.rutgers.edu/~wood/445syl.html) (course)
Sociology of the Internet
(http://web.archive.org/web/20091026213335/http://geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/1214/)
(link collection)
Internet sociologist (http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/sociologist)
The Sociology of the Internet (http://wwwfrd.fsl.noaa.gov/~moninger/NOAATech2002/Relaxation.html)
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