The Internet in Everyday Life (Information Age Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0631235078 ISBN 13: 9780631235071

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2002

Synopsis

The Internet in Everyday Life is the first book to systematically investigate how being online fits into people's everyday lives.

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• Opens up a new line of inquiry into the social effects of the Internet.
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• Focuses on how the Internet fits into everyday lives, rather than considering it as an alternate world.
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• Chapters are contributed by leading researchers in the area.
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• Studies are based on empirical data.
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• Talks about the reality of being online now, not hopes or fears about the future effects of the Internet.

About this title

About the Author

Barry Wellman learned to keypunch in 1965 and started chatting online in 1976. Now the head of the University of Toronto's NetLab, he's a leading scholar of cybersociety, community, and social network analysis. Prof. Wellman has pioneered understanding of both communities and computer networks as social networks. He founded the International Network for Social Network Analysis, chaired the Community section of the American Sociological Association, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Internet Research. He's written more than 200 articles and edited two other books. His website has received 20,000 hits in three years.

Caroline Haythornthwaite is a faculty member at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is also Coordinator of the Undergraduate Minor in Information Technology Studies. Before returning to full-time study, she spent over 10 years in software development as a programmer, systems analyst, and software development manager. Her research focuses on how people work and learn together at a distance via computer technology and the Internet, and examines what combinations of computer media, and work and social communications build ties and social networks online. Current projects include examination of learning networks and community ties among distance learners, and processes of knowledge co-construction among members of distributed research teams.

From the Back Cover

The Internet in Everyday Life brings together many pioneering studies that systematically investigate how being online fits into everyday lives. Until now, the Internet has been treated and discussed as detached from daily life, occupying some separate sphere of social endeavor. This collection of original articles from leading scholars in North America, Asia, and Europe moves discussion of the Internet closer to home, showing how the Internet does not exist "out there" but is instead an integral part of daily work and home life.

Contributors show who is on the Internet and what they are doing there. They debate whether the Internet adds to or detracts from the well-being of individuals, communities, and societies. They demonstrate how the Internet affects friendship, social capital, social support, civic involvement, school, work, and shopping. They reveal the extent to which the Internet is supporting new forms of human relationships, and describe what gets dropped and strained when Internet hours are added to already full schedules.

The book goes beyond speculation to provide solid findings. Articles are informed by results from surveys, interviews, and ethnographic data about behavior on and with the Internet. Taken as a whole, this considered body of evidence should raise the level of debate about the impact of the Internet and raises serious questions about the popular myth that Internet use increases social alienation.

Contributors show who is on the Internet and what they are doing there. They debate whether the Internet adds to or detracts from the well-being of individuals, communities, and societies. They demonstrate how the Internet affects friendship, social capital, social support, civic involvement, school, work, and shopping. They reveal the extent to which the Internet is supporting new forms of human relationships, and describe what gets dropped and strained when Internet hours are added to already full schedules.

The book goes beyond speculation to provide solid findings. Articles are informed by results from surveys, interviews, and ethnographic data about behavior on and with the Internet. Taken as a whole, this considered body of evidence should raise the level of debate about the impact of the Internet and raises serious questions about the popular myth that Internet use increases social alienation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0631235078
• ISBN 13: 9780631235071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 588
• Editor: Wellman Barry, Haythornthwaite Caroline