The Network Society - How Has It Changed in Humans' Work And Interaction - Essay Example

The Network Society - How Has It Changed in Humans' Work And Interaction? Introduction The first portion of the paper constitutes the academic theory; what Network Society is all about. The second part of the paper holds the case study where certain websites will be analysed according to the theory written in the first portion. It is critical to assess the case study in the context of literature review. This way, the paper will be more helpful in achieving its purpose; analyse what is a network society and how it has been transferred from the industrial age to the digital age. Second, it will also help identify what affects the network society and how the present day network society has shaped the social structure of the world. Network Society A society that has stepped into the realm of digital reality, where information is available at the tapping of fingers and your money is available 24/7 instead of waiting for the merchant ships to arrive in a month’s time, that’s a network society. This is 2013 and we are living in one. The social dynamics have changed, the world is truly a global village now. There is more a person can do with the tools (internet, smartphones and computer/tablet devices) available than it was possible a hundred years back. The world has shrunk into this wired globe where everyone can stay connected with their friends and peers as much as they want. Coming back to the etymology, Network Society is a term that describes the area between information society and post-industrial society (Castells, 2001), but the interesting fact is, Network Society encompasses the best of both. So just to be clear and not mix things up, a Network Society is a society where the social fabric is woven around electronically processed information network (Castells, 2001). Network society is not about a society that simply runs on a network, that’s an old concept, it is about the social structure that incorporates micro-electronic based technologies (Castells, 2001). The Internet and the Civic Engagement Communication networks are inseparable from network society (Yang & Bergrud, 2008). Without digital communication, there is no real basis for a network society. We are living in the 21st century, without digital transfer of knowledge, information, news, finances, messages, there will be huge incoordination between the pace of electronic media and the fabric of society. Manuel Castells even goes to the length of saying that without accounting for the tools (electronic facilities like internet) there is no possibility of comprehending or depicting the society (Yang & Bergrud, 2008). Network society is a blessing at one hand but it also creates some complications. The network can become very complex as digital information is readily available (billions of dollars can be transferred from one bank account to another by pressing ENTER of the computer keyboard). For this to work for the administration and public, all departments and sections of the society need to work in cooperation. Darin David Barney (2004) uses the term ‘spirit’ to describe the major drive force of society and deems this one’s, networking. He is justified in creating this spiritual analogy as it is not just the religious part that the spirit represents; the term is frequently used in science and especially in political science. This is the element of a human being (in this case of a society) that compels it to move towards the destiny. Barney (2004) gives the example of Max Weber, and his 1904s ‘Spirit of Capitalism’, and remains convincing in portraying networking as the spirit of society. Constitutive principles of networks have become the life force, the blood line of social, individual political and economic life, is his theology. Post Fordism Post Fordism is the anti-Ford philosophy. Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motors believed that the industrial progress can be intensified if experts are performing specifically assigned tasks in repetition, this way, both the production and quality of the product improves. This was back in the early 20th century and it worked but it is not the case anymore, Hence the acceptance of Post Fordism. Economic production, consumption and the related socio-economic phenomena have changed in the countries that were previously known for industrial domination – the success of Post Fordism, which has a direct relation with the network society. The success of network society comes with the end of rigid Ford ways of industrial production. Network Society doesn’t mean that everything and everyone is wired, there are certain ‘levels’ of integration, where the involvement of network decides the result in a system; Infrastructure uses different types of connections, so does transportation, management and services and finally the types of data involved in the integration (Dijk, 2012). Another factor contributed towards the transformation of conventional and rigid industrial age was the interactivity of digital media. Nowadays, every website, ATM machine, mobile device, voice recognition and command softwares are highly interactive. Digital media has changed the way we think about our society. Interactivity (of the minimum level) means multilateral communication – the concept of space dimension (Dijk, 2012). In a glance network society might seem like just the thing this world needs to resolve crisis, end ongoing wars and feed Africa but sadly that’s not the case! Digital permeation in the society has led to many benefits for the working class but it is yet to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor – we are still living in a two tier society (Qiu, 2009). Poor-rich schism has been broadening due to the digital age, the industrial manufacturing has gone down and so has the middle working class and that in turn has contributed to polarization of wealth distribution (Qiu, 2009). To highlight this gap, the umbrella term used frequently is ‘digital divide’. But that’s just one side of the picture, the other is prettier and opens doors of possibilities. ‘Microtelcos’ is the term used to describe small-scale telecom operators in Latin America (Qiu, 2009), and they could not have been this successful without networking tools that are available to them now. Similarly the community multimedia centres and ICT-equipped fishermen in South Asia and micro-entrepreneurs using wireless technology in Africa (Qiu, 2009) are some of the blessings that digital age and networking has showered upon the people and broken their shackles of Fordism. Here is a more important question, has the digital age been more helpful in reducing or enhancing the divide between the rich and the poor? Or would it be justified to call it just a single divide or multiple strata in the distribution of ICT sources that possibly form a seabed of new age class formation? (Qiu, 2009). Without going in the details of this concept, network society won’t be sufficient to grasp or explain what is really going on, network working class society is the term explained in immense detail in Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China by Jack Linchuan Qiu (2009). Another crucial argument about network society and in particular, the digital age and the technological boom is raised by Hassan (2004) in Media, Politics and The Network Society. Hassan puts forth the notion that probably the technology is the real drive force controlling people now, like a genie who is out of his bottle now. So where does that lead us to? Is network society just a tech-web, a bubble perhaps or some matrix styled control machine watching every moves of humans? Hassan (2004) even goes to the length of saying; “The network society more generally is embedded with the military – industrial logics of control, rationalization, instrumentalization and domination.” (Hassan, 2004, p. 17) The picture painted by Hassan might seem gloomy and dark, as if the authority is manipulating the technology and the wide network of digitalism to keep a close eye on the public, which to a large extent is true. But does that mean network society is bad? Is George Orwell’s Big Brother becoming a reality? Hassan (2004) uses the term ‘Technological Determinism’ for all the overseeing hidden in the phrase modern digital age. Technology compels people to act in a certain way, if ICTs are made open and explicit and put it to the same test of critique as other theories are put through, then we will uncover ‘ideological determinism’. Neoliberal capitalism is prevalent in this determinism and ICTs (Information & Communication Technology) sit at its core, and that makes it the only possible reality (Hassan, 2004, p.17). Why not take a step back from the digitalism being sprayed into the network and see what network society looks and operates like without technology and is (or was there) a concept of network society other than making connections? Derk Messner (1997) writes in The Network Society: Economic Development and International Competitiveness as Problems of Social Governance that governance-theoretical concepts have recognized certain societal behaviour patterns based on society’s network. Problem solving is usually based on ‘horizontal policy coordination’; this is where the essence of network manifests itself (Messner, 1997). Case Study – Facebook and the Network Society When it comes to filtering examples for this case study, no other corporation, entity, website or organization stands out as much as Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. If someone would ask me what is network society in the 21st century, I would point out Facebook Inc., that they should study the company and see how its mission and vision have captured the attention of the word and is now shaping and melding it. Facebook was formed in 2004 by a bunch of Harvard students and since that time, it has become a sensation. When it was learning to crawl, only people from a certain age group would join facebook and post comments on each other’s walls, but this is not the case anymore. People are now living an online life via Facebook. Thirty years back, it would have been a real surprise to find your high school friend after a long time in a bar or club but Facebook’s magic has diminished the rarity of that surprise, there are groups on Facebook dedicated to finding old high school/ college/university friends. Information is now traveling at the speed of light. What couldn’t be popular on the mainstream media can now be made popular via websites like Facebook. Even the Egyptian revolution is said to have been evoked by the social media platform – Facebook. Now people can connect with each other and can gather under one flag. This flag can be of similar opinions about any event, politics, religion or simply regarding a movie or an actor. World economy is in a rapid shift it has never experienced before. Platforms like Facebook have given non-existent businesses training wheels to get it up and running and marketing tools are provided by Facebook. So now the engine runs on sheer talent and not only the finances, which was unthinkable some before the internet boom and the launching of websites like Facebook and Twitter. Robert Hassan (2008) in his The Information Society: Cyber Dreams and Digital Nightmares writes about the impact of Facebook on the society and how the information age is shaping our lives. The interaction between people is ‘purpose free’ (Hassan, 2008), but does that imply people log into Facebook to chat? Well that is (was) one part of Facebook, but people log in to do anything they would like to do; a student would log in and go to his favourite groups; chess club, math, or music composition and start ‘studying’. This is the beauty of network society driven by digital platforms that make the flow of information, interaction between people and setting up businesses online so easy and of low costs. The poor-rich schism discussed in the literature review is shrinking due to ‘digital proliferation’, courtesy websites like Facebook. There are many success stories over such platforms that have turned lives around. People are no more obscure and lost in the sea of seven billion people, being recognized and talked about is no more that difficult as it used to be. Brands and emerging businesses are especially capitalizing on this fact, they are ‘connecting’ with their customers. Their business strategies now include a special marketing tactic called Facebook Marketing. Businesses now have a free tool to promote their brands, if this doesn’t have an impact on the world economy then what will? Media groups and anchor-persons have their own ‘following’ on Facebook and thousands and thousands of people ‘follow’ them. They can instantly have a say in the opinion regarding state and political matters. This is the flow of information this paper referred to earlier – such is the strength of digital media in a network society. Facebook and similar websites have brought the concept of aliases and living an online life and having a web-presence true, now people can instantly take the photos of the places they’re at, and share it with the world. Now, imagine the kind of conversation that takes place in the network society over such an upload; A person uploads his picture under Eifel Tower, while the other fried suggests if you go straight and take a left, you can visit the best restaurant in Paris. Depending on circumstances, the person in the picture would probably even go visit the restaurant, eat and probably give feedback on his friend’s suggestions. Let’s analyse this; there is a free active flow of information, not only the people talking get to know the directions to that place but others who are following the conversation also get to know that there is a certain restaurant in Paris and how to reach it from Eifel Tower. Stretching the same example; the friend who guided the pic uploader probably went there himself last year and while he was searching on internet about good places to eat sushi, he saw an ad on facebook from that restaurant. The question is; is it that simple that he was searching for something and he found it? We don’t live in a perfect world; it is not simply the case of making an effort. He saw the ad from the restaurant because of the keywords he was putting into the search box of Google or some other Internet search engine. That is how the businesses (internet advertisers) find real potential customers. In a truly network society, it is not merely the case of businesses finding the customers rather it’s the other way round. Analysis As mentioned in the paper, network society has been changed tremendously and will continue to do so. But this should not be confused with the cause and effect misunderstanding that so many people fall into. The modern technology, digital age and all the gadgets available to humans are very impactful on the lives of people and yes they are very effective in shaping the modern lifestyle but does that mean that technology is the real cause of changing the network society or is technology the real agent for the death of Fordism? Absolutely not, technology isn’t the only thing that evolves, humans also evolve, they constantly form new ideas, opinions and philosophies – humans change and in turn they change the way society works. The rules that have long governed the society are in a constant state of change. The change in rules is and effect caused by the change in society, fostered by technological innovation (Michaelsen, 2005). That is why in the earlier discussion about the etymology of network society, it was established that a network society is even broader than a knowledge society. A knowledge society is a place where the economy works around knowledge, jobs created in such a society are mostly based on knowledge (Fuchs, 2008). Conclusion Network society is in itself a universe incorporating conventional and information society. The effects of a network oriented society that is geared by technological innovations that are constantly shaping and melding our lifestyles. The theoretical portion of this paper is exemplified by the case study of Facebook; how it shows the true meaning of networking and its impact on the society. Frank Webster (2007) writes in his Theories of Information Society that the information society is of little value when its real meanings are analysed. As Manuel Castells himself remained careful not to relate the arriving of an information society with modern technology; each civilization/society had their ‘modern’ technology and they have used information to form the basis of their own society, so this is not the case of Internet boom announcing the arrival of information society. Yes, networking has been present for centuries and so has the technology and both the information and network societies have remained in the history and played their part. What today’s society, with all of Twitter, Smart Watches and Facebook, represent is a network society of 2013, where information serves as its fuel. Sources 1. Castells, M., 2001. Globe Trotter. [online] Available at: http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Castells/castells-con4.html 2. Dijk, J. V. 2012, The network society. London: SAGE. 3. Fuchs, C. 2008, Internet & society: Social theory in the information age. Routledge. 4. Hassan, 2004, Media politics and the network society. McGraw-Hill International. 5. Hassan, R. 2008, The information society: Cyber dreams and digital nightmares. Polity 6. Messner, D. 1997, The network society: Economic development and international competitiveness as problems of social governance. Routledge. 7. Michaelsen, F. 2005, Sustainability in network society. GRIN Verlag. 8. Qiu, J. L. 2009, Working-class network society: Communication technology and the information have-less in Urban China. MIT Press. 9. Webster, F. 2007, Theories of information society. Routledge. 10. Yang, K. & Bergurd, E., 2008. Civic engagement in a network society. IAP Inc. Read More