Folks, I am proud of the book that Caroline Haythornthwaite and I have co-edited about how the Internet affects everyday life. Here are some details, OTO. Barry ___________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman@chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 ___________________________________________________________________ _The Internet in Everyday Life_ Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite, eds. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. November 2002. 588 pages. ISBN: 0-631-23508-6 Price: USD $27.95; Euros 20.36; CdnD $44.03; BritPounds £17.95 From the back cover: The _Internet in Everyday Life_ brings together pioneering studies that systematically investigate how being online fits into everyday lives. Until now, the Internet has been treated and discussed as detached from daily life, occupying some separate sphere of social endeavor. This collection of original articles from leading scholars in North America, Asia, and Europe moves discussion of the Internet closer to home, showing how the Internet does not exist "out there" but is instead an integral part of daily work and home life. Contributors show who is on the Internet and what they are doing there. They debate whether the Internet adds to or detracts from the well being of individuals, communities, and societies. They demonstrate how the Internet affects friendship, social capital, social support, civic involvement, school, work, and shopping. They reveal the extent to which the Internet is supporting new forms of human relationships, and describe what gets dropped and strained when Internet hours are added to already full schedules. The book goes beyond speculation to provide solid findings. Surveys, interviews, and field observations inform analyses of behavior on and with the Internet. Taken as a whole, this body of evidence should raise the level of debate about the impact of the Internet and raises serious questions about the popular myth that Internet use increases social alienation. Excerpts from the Editors' Introduction, Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite: _The Internet in Everyday Life_ is about the second age of the Internet as it descends from the firmament and becomes embedded in everyday life. The first age of the Internet was a bright light shining above everyday concerns. In the euphoria, many analysts lost their perspective. The rapid contraction of the dot.com economy has brought down to earth the once-euphoric belief in the infinite possibility of Internet life. It is not as if the Internet disappeared. Instead, the light that dazzled overhead has become embedded in everyday things. A reality check is now underway about where the Internet fits into the ways in which people behave offline as well as online. We are moving from a world of Internet wizards to a world of ordinary people routinely using the Internet as an embedded part of their lives. It has become clear that the Internet is a very important thing, but not a special thing. In fact, it is being used more - by more people, in more countries, in more ways. This book is a harbinger of a new way of thinking about the Internet: not as a special system but as routinely incorporated into everyday life.... The studies presented here begin the tasks of broadening our focus from the Internet to the social worlds in which it is embroiled. The research in this book focuses on the relationship between the Internet and interpersonal relationships. It speaks to issues about the social consequences of adding the Internet to our daily lives. It explores how the Internet affects social and communal behaviors. The studies address key questions about the impact of the Internet on friendships, civic involvement, and time spent with others. Who is online and who is coming online (and not coming)? How much time do they spend online? How does the Internet affect relationships within households, and with family, friends, voluntary organizations, schoolmates, and workmates? The research presented suggests that the Internet has accentuated a change towards a networked society: a turn toward living in networks rather than in groups. The personalization, portability, ubiquitous connectivity, and imminent wireless mobility of the Internet all facilitate networked individualism as the basis of community. Excerpts from Manuel Castells' Preface: This book is precious. It provides us with reliable, scholarly research on the hows and whats of the Internet as it relates to people's lives. The Internet is rapidly becoming part of the fabric of our lives, not only in the advanced societies but in the core acitivites and dominant social groups in most of the world.... [These are] academic researchers setting the record straight, engaging into the exploration of a new society, our society, the network society.... [They describe] electronic networks that simultaneously coordinate decision-making and decentralize production and distribution throughout the planet.... [This is] a global movement enacted by and with the Internet.... The emerging pattern is one of self-directed networking, both in terms of social relationships and in terms of social projects. The Internet is not just a tool; it is an essential medium for the network society to unfold its logic.... It is by investigating along the lines suggested in this volume that we will be able to assess its contour and its implications. The network is the message, and the Internet is the messenger. Excerpts from Howard Rheingold's Foreword: Social scientists have pulled ahead of anecdotal evidence and armchair theorizing to provide significant answers to some of society's most important questions about social behavior via online media.... Good information is now available, but it's still drowned out by the noise. The next step is getting that news out. The current volume provides useful answers. Most importantly, it frames the right kinds of questions about the ways in which the se of Internet-enabled media affect everyday lives. Each chapter in this volume should stimulate others to ask even more specific questions, as all good research should. Now that the authors of this volume ... have established a solid foundation of systematic observation and theory about the ways the Internet influences everyday life, perhaps we won't have to rely on data-free philosophizing to make policy decisions as citizens and societies.
From Brian D. Loader, Journal Editor, Information, Communication & Society:
The editors are to be congratulated for pulling together a collection of excellent articles that will make a valuable contribution to empirically grounding discussions about the effects of the Internet on our everyday life experiences. [Back cover] TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword - The Virtual Community in the Real World, by Howard Rheingold Series Editor's Preface: The Internet and the Network Society, by Manuel Castells Part I - Moving the Internet out of Cyberspace The Internet in Everyday Life: An Introduction, by Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry Wellman Part II - The Place of the Internet in Everyday Life 1. Days and Nights on the Internet, by Philip E. N. Howard, Lee Rainie, and Steve Jones 2. The Global Villagers: Comparing Internet Users and Uses Around the World, by Wenhong Chen, Jeffrey Boase, and Barry Wellman 3. Syntopia: Access, Civic Involvement, and Social Interaction on the Net, James E. Katz and Ronald E. Rice 4. Digital Living: The Impact (or Otherwise) of the Internet on Everyday British Life, Ben Anderson and Karina Tracey 5. The Changing Digital Divide in Germany, Gert G. Wagner, Rainer Pischner, and John P. Haisken-DeNew 6. Doing Social Science Research Online, Alan Neustadtl, John P. Robinson, and Meyer Kestnbaum Part III - Finding Time for the Internet 7. Internet Use, Interpersonal Relations, and Sociability: A Time Diary Study, by Norman H. Nie, D. Sunshine Hillygus, and Lutz Erbring 8. The Internet and Other Uses of Time, by John P. Robinson, Meyer Kestnbaum, Alan Neustadtl, and Anthony S. Alvarez 9. Everyday Communication Patters of Heavy and Light Email Users, Janell I. Copher, Alaina G. Kanfer, and Mary Bea Walker Part IV - The Internet in the Community 10. Capitalizing on the Net: Social Contact, Civic Engagement, and Sense of Community, by Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman, with James C. Witte and Keith N. Hampton 11. The Impact of Community Computer Networks on Social Capital and Community Involvement in Blacksburg, Andrea L. Kavanaugh and Scott J. Patterson 12. The Not So Global Village of Netville, Keith N. Hampton and Barry Wellman 13. Email, Gender, and Personal Relationships, Bonka Boneva and Robert Kraut 14. Belonging in Geographic, Ethnic and Internet Spaces, Sorin Matei and Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach Part V - The Internet at School, Work, and Home 15. Bringing the Internet Home: Adult Distance Learners and Their Internet, Home, and Work Worlds, by Caroline Haythornthwaite and Michelle M. Kazmer 16. Where Home is the Office: The New Form of Flexible Work, by Janet W. Salaff 17. Kerala Connections: Will the Internet Affect Science in Developing Areas? Theresa Davidson, R. Sooryamoorthy, and Wesley Shrum 18. Social Support for Japanese Mothers Online and Offline, by Kakuko Miyata 19. Experience and Trust in Online Shopping, by Robert J. Lunn and Michael W. Suman