Internet & Society

Answer the questions below

Explain the key traits of networked individualism. How do these traits apply to your own life?

Explain how race, gender, and age impact online experiences. Provide examples from your own life. You can provide examples from families and friends

ANSWER

Internet and Society

Networked Individualism

In the past, an individual’s community consisted of relatively small social ties organized around their community, home, local activities or workplace. People mostly spend their time around relatives, family, friends and neighbours with common beliefs and backgrounds (Quan-Haase et al., 2018). Much of the developed world has been linked to the internet, which has evolved and is embedded in daily lives. However, the growth of the internet has led to social changes in the way people interact, contact and obtain information and resources from one another, leading to networked individualism.

The networked individualism concept shows how society has moved from being gathered into groups to individuals connected to personal networks through digital technology. The networked individualism has led to each person remaining connected not as a group but as an individual. Each person operates a separate personal community network and rapidly switches among various sub-networks (Zhou, 2018). Therefore, networked individuals have transitioned from geographically bounded groups to permeable, dynamic and sparse communication networks. Digital devices such as mobile phones and computers have played a great role in networked individualism since they help manage communication activities and bring about social networks.

Networked individualism has remained important in my life since I can connect with individuals of the same interest as mine rather than remaining fixed in a networked geographical society. Through sharing photos browsing through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, I have been able to connect with people from different social circles for various purposes. Network individualism has increased my need and ability to connect with the diverse network, thus being part of an active social life. Defining characteristics of networked individualism have led to diverse social networks, thus increasing my ability to navigate everyday activities with people of different beliefs and backgrounds for varying purposes. Through networked individualism, I have been able to explore new territories and meet new friends due to the accelerated social connectivity.

How Race, Gender, and Age Impact Online Experiences

Online experiences vary depending on an individual’s gender, race, and age. For instance, social media is now part of almost everyone’s daily routine, but its use differs based on race, age, and gender. The younger generation has a higher online experience than the older generation. The young generation is more likely to interact with other people on the networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and share social conversations that increase their connection. There exists gender differences in the satisfaction, usefulness, ease of use and compatibility of the continued use of social media.

Females focus on social media usage for their relationship maintenance and keep in touch with friends while hiding their personal information and identity for privacy reasons. In contrast, male users focus on playing games and making new friends (Idemudia et al., 2017). I have a different online experience with my sibling since he likes making new friends on social media platforms which makes his usage patterns different from mine. I only use social media networking sites to check on old friends and keep in touch with new ones.

Online discriminations have been linked to the race and ethnicity of an individual. Racial discrimination on the internet has been a major stressor in the lives of young adults and adolescents of colour (Tynes, Seaton and Zuckerman, 2015). Online victimization has been linked to racial differences, especially on social networking sites such as racist jokes, racial epithets and symbols of hate such as the confederate flag.

References

Idemudia, E. C., Raisinghani, M. S., Adeola, O., & Achebo, N. (2017). The effects of gender on the adoption of social media: An empirical investigation.

Quan-Haase, A., Wang, H., Wellman, B., & Zhang, A. (2018). Weaving family connections on and offline: The turn to networked individualism. Connecting families: Information & communication technologies, generations, and the life course, 57-77.

Tynes, B. M., Seaton, E., & Zuckerman, A. (2015). Online racial discrimination: A growing problem for adolescents. Psychological science agenda.

Zhou, A. Y. (2018). Society & the Internet: how networks of information and communication are changing our lives.