To What Extent Does Online Communication Impact on Our Construction of Social Networks? Does the “Virtual Society” Actually Exist?
To what extent does online communication impact on our construction of social networks? Does the “virtual society” actually exist?
The development of the means of communication through the internet leaded to partial replacement of direct interhuman relationships, so we frequently find us facing questions related to modern communication, the way that it affects our day to day life, and the way society tends to become digitalized one day at a time.
Therefore, the concept of a virtual society is real, and it tends to be nothing more than the reflection of our basic existence.
According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, communication is “the process by which people exchange information or express their thoughts and feelings”. Being given the ascension of the online communications and facilities, we often find ourselves witnessing the creation of virtual communities and therefore, online societies are built just in front of our eyes.
Before the internet we are so familiar with today became so widespread, the networks were mainly used for communication between stations of the local network and only very few people could have proper access to it. According to S.P. Wilbur, “Recent years have seen a rapid and far-reaching expansion of the internet and its applications, with more and more people getting online. Moreover, it is doubtless that this seemingly relentless growth of the internet will engender a multitude of social political and economic impacts, both domestic and global, which must be urgently enquired into and analyzed and understood”.(“An archaeology of cyberspaces: Virtuality, community, identity” in D. Porter (ed.),Internet Culture, 1997). Therefore, what in the beginning was nothing more than a computer networking method used purely for scientifical purposes became the user friendly connecting method that made possible for all the people to access the same network, and eventually, become what we could roughly define as the “virtual
The development of the means of communication through the internet leaded to partial replacement of direct interhuman relationships, so we frequently find us facing questions related to modern communication, the way that it affects our day to day life, and the way society tends to become digitalized one day at a time.
Therefore, the concept of a virtual society is real, and it tends to be nothing more than the reflection of our basic existence.
According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, communication is “the process by which people exchange information or express their thoughts and feelings”. Being given the ascension of the online communications and facilities, we often find ourselves witnessing the creation of virtual communities and therefore, online societies are built just in front of our eyes.
Before the internet we are so familiar with today became so widespread, the networks were mainly used for communication between stations of the local network and only very few people could have proper access to it. According to S.P. Wilbur, “Recent years have seen a rapid and far-reaching expansion of the internet and its applications, with more and more people getting online. Moreover, it is doubtless that this seemingly relentless growth of the internet will engender a multitude of social political and economic impacts, both domestic and global, which must be urgently enquired into and analyzed and understood”.(“An archaeology of cyberspaces: Virtuality, community, identity” in D. Porter (ed.),Internet Culture, 1997). Therefore, what in the beginning was nothing more than a computer networking method used purely for scientifical purposes became the user friendly connecting method that made possible for all the people to access the same network, and eventually, become what we could roughly define as the “virtual
Bibliography: Institute of Ideas (2002) Debating Matters- The internet: Brave new world? , Hodder & Stoughton John Dovey (1996) Fractal Dreams-New Media in Social Context, London: Laurence & Wishart Sherry Turkle (1995) Life on the screen: Identity in the age of internet, New York, N.Y. : Touchstone. Myron W.Krueger (1995) Artificial Reality II, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts http://www.facebook.com/principles.php http://secondlife.com