Sociable

What does it mean to live in a Network Society?

Social networks enable a culture of mass communication, a participatory culture. Although these social networks have always existed, the presence of new technologies and social media platforms have vastly expanded things. “Networks are economic and political as well as social phenomena.” (Flew, T. & Smith, R. Pg. 128, 2018). “Social production and participatory culture, often taking the form of a “gift economy” in which people contribute to sites such as Wikipedia or Youtube out of sense of pride, community and sharing, existed in earlier times but have been greatly enhanced by widespread availability of new forms of information and communications technology and the resulting ability to contribute at a very low cost and with few barriers to entry.” (Flew, T. & Smith, R. Pg. 128, 2018).

“Human beings are social creatures and we exist in a vast array of social networks, including kinship, friendship, neighbourhood and community.” (Flew, T. & Smith, R.  Pg. 129, 2018). These free social media apps make social networking so easy, 24/7, internationally. A computer network now has become part of our social network. With people being able to connect and organize virtually anything through online communities, brings many positive and negative effects to our society. Organizations like Anonymous, Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock protests as well as crowdfunding have united people internationally. This is a perfect example of a positive effect of social networking. However there can be many negative effects with social networks, terrorist organizations can recruit and organize terror attacks, as well as many existing racist groups can network through these platforms.