Networked: The New Social Operating System (The MIT Press)

Price: $15.99
(as of May 20,2023 21:16:55 UTC – Details)

Our daily life is driven by social networks, the personalized Internet, and always-on mobile connectivity. We receive endless email pings and responses, continually arriving text messages, tweets and retweets, Facebook updates, pictures, and videos to post and discuss. Our perpetual connectedness provides us with endless opportunities to be part of the give-and-take of networking. Some people fear that this new environment makes us isolated and lonely. However, in Networked, Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman show how our large, loosely knit social circles expand opportunities for learning, problem solving, decision making, and personal interaction.

The new social operating system of “networked individualism” liberates us from the restrictions of tightly knit groups. But it also requires us to develop networking skills and strategies, work on maintaining ties, and balance multiple overlapping networks. Rainie and Wellman outline the “triple revolution” that has brought on this transformation: the rise of social networking, the capacity of the internet to empower individuals, and the always-on connectivity of mobile devices. By drawing on extensive evidence and examining how the move to networked individualism has expanded personal relationships beyond households and neighborhoods, transformed work into less hierarchical and more team-driven enterprises, encouraged individuals to create and share content, and changed the way people obtain information, Rainie and Wellman guide us through the challenges and opportunities of living in the evolving world of networked individuals.

Publisher: The MIT Press; Illustrated edition (February 14, 2014)
Language: English
Paperback: 358 pages
ISBN-10: 0262526166
ISBN-13: 978-0262526166
Reading age: 18 years and up
Item Weight: 1.12 pounds
Dimensions: 8.87 x 5.71 x 0.83 inches