The Idea of the Networked Society - Essay Example

NETWORKED SOCIETY College Networked Society In the history of the world, the evolvement of the society has been a continuous and progressive process. A change in the social structure has resulted into new ways of life within the global society. One of the concepts that have evolved in the modern days is the concept of the networked society. The idea of the networked society evolved back in the 1970s and scholars used it to refer to the social, political, cultural and economic changes that came as a result of proliferation of networks and digital technologies. Scholars have developed numerous theories in an effort to explain how technology has resulted to the shaping of the concept of networked society. This piece of work provides an analysis of the concept of the networked society and brought forward in various scholarly works. In the 21st century, there has been a great technological paradigm that underpins the change in social structure. In the early 20th century, technology was constrained among the western countries where this word had some meaning. In other regions, technology was a foreign word and it was a dream that existed in the dreams of only the enlightened in the society. This was the time that Castel (2000) compares with the modern times and uses social transformation as the term to describe the great difference between the two eras. Traditional scholars such as Georg Simmel provide a futuristic idea of the world as it would in the advent of technology. In the traditional society, the world was segmented and social ties existed within people within the same geographical location. Each society was confined within limited geographical regions and cultural attitudes were used to bind me close together. Beyond the boundaries of culture, people remained within these small networks. Castel attributes this to the shortage of technological in this dark era the world was still too young. From Castell’s point of view, the cultural, social and political aspects of the society were suppressed by an era of little technology. Since the last two decades of the 20th century, the world has experienced a great transformational change in the field of technology. As most scholars suggest, the 21st century has led to the erosion of the traditional society ushering a new era of a new reformed society. Although the theories of a networked society evolved long before the proliferation of discrete information technology structures, it is clear that it is a process that has taken over the society today. The development of the information technology and its proliferation across the world has resulted to the formation of a global village or rather a global network. There a number of reasons why technology has continued to flow in the society today. First, the technological reforms are stills researching and coming with more innovative technologies that can transform the world. Secondly, the technologies are becoming cheaper and affordable allowing all members of the society to possess them. The media technology is creating technological awareness, informing people of the dynamics of technology and changing their way of thought (Dutton 1996). As technology continues to be absorbed, the world is becoming less detaching to region based networks and joining in the network of networks, that is the global network. The idea of these authors is relevant and can be judged as both timely and predictive. The society today has become geographically liberated and people are free to move from one region of the world to another with ease. People can invest study or even decide to settle any place in the world today. Technology has brought the pressure for the society to expand beyond its geographical boundaries. Unlike in the traditional set up when people thrived within small social units consisting of people who speak the same language and share the same traditions, the networked society is large and not spatially limited. The idea of these scholars can be judge as right considering the breakage of social ties in the modern world. The people are free to interact in spite of their race, culture, politics or even nationality. For instance, business investors have launched international strategies to venture into foreign markets without any fear of interrupting the traditional social structures. The society has become more responsive to one another, tolerable and more accommodating. These changes in the social structure can be attributed to the formation a new society, the networked society. The spread of information technology and the media result to new forms of structures as people lose their cultural cohesion and adapt to new networks (Dutton 1996). This is the evidence of a rapidly changing society and the emergence of a new society with different characteristics. In the lenses of the proponents of the theories regarding the formation of a new society, it these changes that result into formation of a networked society. Network societies are new social structures that are driven by technology and that use changed mechanisms of communication. In the advent of television technology, the social structure slowly changed and social bonds melted down. The society became more conscious of the world around them giving them the mind of forming greater social circles. Broadcasting stations provided information across large geographical locations, changing the narrow perspective of social relations. The idea of Castell and Cardoso (2005) that information networks resulted to formation of new social networks seems to refer to the expansion of social relationships since the emergence of television technology. Technology makes people more conscious the world around them and provides opportunities for change of social structures. The world learns to share information knowledge and cultures with people across the entire world. The cumulative impact of this is that the social ties are broken and people move outwards to expand their social circles, eventually forming a network of networks. The concept of globalisation implies that no human is any longer tied to their traditional home; they free to roam across the world and to become part of the larger social circle. The internet technology has led to the emergence of new forms of networks. Internet technology is a platform for global communication that the society can embrace to break their small networks that were evident in the traditional social structures. Internet technology has become more accessible in the society due to reduced costs of service providers and reduced cost of access points. In an era when computer and mobile technology is becoming cheap, the society has better access to internet (Jones, 1998). Since internet is not geographically limited, it is possible to term is as a network of networks. It allows people to come together and share information no matter their geographical separation. Today, it is possible to send an e-mail from Africa to America within a flash of a second. This points out how it is easy to establish networks that are not limited to any geographical location. The internet has become a tool that dominates all the aspects of human life; economics, social, and political aspects. As the internet continues to penetrate in the social spheres, people continue to lose their social structure and adapt to new social structures that are technology driven (Wellman & Haythornthwaite, 2002). In this light, the internet has become a tool of community changes and an icon of new social networks. The concept of internet social networks can be linked to the metamorphosis of the society structure. People are dropping their tradition culture and rapidly adopting the internet culture. Although people may be spatially isolated, they can be able to maintain their connecting within the social networks. A number of social networks are available online leaving the people with the role of selecting among the most efficient. Spatially separated people can maintain their social cohesion by joining social networks or using the mobile technology. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype provide people with the opportunity to stay close to their relatives no matter their distance from one another. In Facebook, real time chatting enables people to share information with high efficiency just like if they were together (Dutton 1996). However, these social networks are global and allow the international community with a chance to share information globally. Emerging technologies such as videoconferencing provide people with opportunities to have visual contacts and they can communicate just like if they were in the same physical location. On this ground, internet has allowed people to share information with great efficiency not only with close people but also with the global society. In the business environment, information technology has reformed the business network. Dijk (2012) points out that the internet technology has not only metamorphosed the society but also the business networks. Today organizations are striving to get into an efficient online presence to get more interconnected. Dijk says that the world has never been so independent and interconnected (P. 1). In the advent of the internet and wed technology, local and global business organizations have formed greater networks to interconnect various market segments. The web 2.0 technology has allowed organizations to establish and effective online presence that has the potential to sell them beyond the domestic markets. This idea of Dijk (2012) may refer to the changes that have come to pass on business invention. For instance, today it is possible to sell products online from wherever one may be in the world and have them shipped to their destinations. Websites such as e-Bay allows customers to communicate with other customers or even the management. This is a manifestation of how networks have interconnected people from the global arena, providing them with an opportunity to remain close no matter their spatial separation. Particularly, investors have taken advantage of the social interconnection to push their business into the international market. Technology has become the main platform for international business in the business market. As the technology has led global cohesion, the business investors have an opportunity to invest in these social changes to optimize their profits. For instance, the Facebook social site has become important in business advertisement. Facebook is a social site that links millions of individual across the globe and is a powerful tool that interconnects people. The like, share and comment buttons have become powerful buttons that can influence business performance. For instance, the share button in Facebook allows more people to see a business advertisement more than it would occur if television advertisement was used. Through the online networks, business can be able to reach out for more customers and increase their profits in the long run. These changes in business strategy have come as a result of the formation of networked society. By relying on well-established social networks, it is possible for the business investors to increase their business worth by increasing the number of customers (Floridi, 2009). On this note, information technology has changed the business aspect of the society and provided new strategies to invest in the international market. The formation of social networks underpins the loss of value for face to face communication within the society. Dijk (2012) points out that people will withdraw from face to face communication for a number of reasons. For instance, most teenagers will avoid calling one another and preferring to use social sites such as Facebook where there is less form of direct communication. The liveliness of online communication provides people with the feeling that they are socially connected. For instance, if two brothers live in different locations, they can communicate through Skype call option eliminating any need for them to meet. No matter their physical separation, they will feel as if they have been together due to their online communication. While this helps them to come together, it is indisputable that the two people are indispensable and cannot form strong relationship that they would if they lived in a common physical location. Resultantly, the networked society has lost its cultural and family bond, that were strong in the pre-network era. These changes have resulted in the development of new forms of relationships. This metamorphosis of the social structure due to information technology has resulted to the change in social communication strategies. On the other hand, the technology has led to the development of new networks where people can share more and exchange ideas without necessarily being on the same location. The formation of the network society put social equality, especially in the political perspective of the society. Despite a diverse proliferation of the technology, there still exists a great information gap among the people who can access the information and those who cannot. Theorists point out that those who have access to the information are the enlightened members of the society and those that have no access remain in the darkness (Bowen, 1994). In politics where the public is expected to contribute, social equality is at stake. Those who have information have the knowledge and facts from which to make decisions from, while those who lack the technology have little knowledge on which to decide from. This can be regarded as true as far as the contemporary political environment is concerned. Today, the political candidates prefer to put their manifestos online where people can access and forget to mind those who have no access to technology. Therefore, only those who are within the information networks can make credible decision as they have more access to facts and can share their ideas within these networks. Consequently, the society becomes divided on the line of technology depending on availability of this technology. In essence, this difference in access into the information networks results to social inequality in the society. Theorists point out to the dynamic nature of the networked society. Since the networked society is subject to the terms of evolving technology, it is bound to change with time. Each day technological researchers are venturing into new technologies to come up with more innovative technologies that can change the world. Similarly, the network society is bound to change with the same pace as the technology is changing. This idea of theorists concerning the changes in social behaviours is evident in various perspectives. For instance, after the emergence of the internet technology, more people are people have withdrawn from television and are more likely to get update information in online newspapers. Unlike in the old days when people depended on newspapers and TV media for information, today, real time information is available online and people have shifted their focus to this technology. In the business environment, the website technology is changing rapidly enabling business systems to remain flexible to catch up with the new technology (Wellman, 2002). For instance, the emergence of the web 2.0 technology brought about business efficiency that was not present in the old web 1.0 technology. The development of online calling facilities such as Viber has allowed the information society to switch from billed calls. On this ground, the theorists’ idea that the networked society is dynamic is relevant and has come to pass in the era of technological development (Barney, 2013). Since the society is linked to technology, it is clear that the society will change at the same pace at which technology will change. In conclusion, the emergence of information technology resulted to the formation of a networked society and the disappearance of the traditional social systems. In the last two decades of the 20th century, the digital information technology emerged creating a platform for the society to network socially, economically and even politically. The society has adopted technology to form new communication channels that allow people to talk no matter their geographical location. Through the internet, mobile and web technology, the people can communicate effectively. The impact of this is that social ties have been broken and people are free to move to any region in the world. The society is much more interconnected and the need for face to face communication has been eliminated. Business organizations can utilize the information network to attract more customers from global market segments. The vividness of digital communication makes it possible for people to remain connected and helps them to share ideas through the online presence. The internet is a network of networks that unites the whole world and ensures that geographical barriers are eliminated. However, there is social inequality as people out of the information network are isolated when making decisions that matter in their lives. Notably, the networked society is dynamic as it is subject to the changes in technology. Bibliography Barney, D., 2013, The Network Society. London: John Wiley & Sons Bowen D, 1994, Multimedia - Now and down the line, London, Bowerdean Castells, M., 2011, The Rise of the Network Society. London: John Wiley & Sons. Castells, M. & Cardoso, G., 2005, The Networked Society: From Knowledge to Policy. Washington: John Hopkins. Dijk, J. A. G. M. . 2012, The network society. 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