at Home, the Community

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at Home, the Community WorkBarry
WellmanNetLab Director, University of
Torontowww.chass.utoronto.ca/wellmanllman_at_chass
.utoronto.ca
Toward Networked Individualism The Internet in
Everyday Life

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NetLab Goals

• Descend from seeing the Internet
• As Transcendentally Unique
• Towards Immanently Embedded in Everyday Life
• Use Real World Social Data
• Survey, Network analysis, Ethnography
• Evaluate indicators of the turn towardsNetworked
  Individualism
• Bias towards working collaboratively
• Interdisciplinary (Comp sci, Info sci, Comm sci,
  etc
• International comparisons the Non-Universal net
• Build (and Evaluate) stuff, as well as Studying
  stuff

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This Conference is about The Turn to Networked
Societies

• Computer Networks, Economic Networks
  Communication NetworksAre All Social Networks
• Been Doing Social Network Analysisfor 35 Years
• Founded Intl Net for Net Analysis 1977
• Glad to Have You Aboard!
• Conference in Cancun Next Month

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Outline of Talk

• A Conference Theme
• What is the Transformed Nature of Work and
  Community in a Networked Society?
• Transformation Began Before the Internet
• From Group-Based to Networked Societies
• Door-to-Door, Place-to-Place, Person-to-Person
• Transforming Enterprise Networked Individualism
• The Six Socials Linkages, Capital, Cohesion,
  Mobilization, Control, Exclusion

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Door-to Door Groups
Place-to-Place Glocalization
Person-to-PersonNetworked Individualism
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Social TransformationFrom Groups to Networks

• Changing Connectivity
• Sparsely-Knit
• Loosely-Bounded
• Multiple Foci

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Already Transformed Communities Pre-Internet

• The households community, not the individuals
• Community dispersed regionally,
  (inter)nationally
• More friends, neighbours, acquaintances,
  workmates than kin
• Sparsely-knit few directly connected with each
  other
• Specialized support
• Domestication Encounters in Private Space
• Homes, Phones
• Wives organize/serve couples get-togethers
  ties with in-laws

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Second Age of Internet Studies From
Transcendence to Imminence

• Documenting Situating
• For Government, Academe, Commerce, Public
  Interest
• Ethnographies
• Surveys Access, Users and Uses
• Realizations that Reliable Research Data Needed
• Grounding Internet Use in Overall Experiences
• Integrating Net Use with Other Media Use
• Differentiating Types of User Populations

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Second Age of Internet Studies From
Transcendence to Imminence

• Is the Internet
• Disconnecting Household Members?
• Transforming, Diminishing, Adding To
  Communication Community?
• Civic Involvement Voluntary Orgs, Politics?
• Alienation Loss of Control, Sense of Control?
• Replacing Everyday Pursuits?
• Affecting Structure of Work?

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Changing Users and Uses

• Within-Country Digital Divides Decreasing
• Newbies Look Like Rest of Population
• SES, Language Remain Important
• Gender, Age, Life-Cycle Gaps Closing
• North Americans Resemble General Pop.
• Other OECD Non-OECD Countries More
• Male, Better Educated, Younger, Single
• Does Ontogeny Recapitulate Phylogeny?
• New Catalan Japanese Research

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From Newbies to Users

• People Rapidly Become Experienced
• Users Become Frequent Users
• The Real Digital Divide is Know-How
• Not Access
• AMD Global Consumer Advisory Board Computer
  SATs Coming

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National Geographic Survey 2000 and Survey 2001

• Survey 2000 -- Fall 1998 Cleaned Sample
• 15,659 North Americans (US, Canada) 77
• 3,079 Other OECD (Germany, Japan, etc.) 15
• 1,604 Non-OECD (Often Less Developed) 8
• Survey 2001 Entering Data Analysis Stage
• Collaborators Jeffrey Boase, Wenhong Chen, Keith
  Hampton, Catherine Mobley, Anabel Quan-Haase,
  James Witte

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Email Adds on To F2F, Phone

• Nearby Interactions Continue to Predominate
• 63 of All Contact with Kin are with Nearby Kin
• 42 of all Email Contact with Kin are with Nearby
  Kin
• Multiple Media Used
• For Daily Emailers
• For Nearby Kin, Email is 22 of All Contact
• For Faraway Kin, Email is 53 of All Contact
• Friendship Data is Similar, but More Contact
• And More Email Contact

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Neighboring in Netville

• Keith Hampton Barry Wellman
• City and Community, 2003
• Highly Fast Asynchronous Transfer Mode
• 16 MegaBit/Second
• Always On
• Telco Field Trial in Toronto Suburb

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View of Netville
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Wired and Non-Wired Neighboring in Netville
 
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Catalonian Web Surfers

• Few Use Email Frequently
• Most Use Web Services Frequently
• Why?
• Localistic Society
• Most Friends and Kin Live Nearby
• Most Live with Parents
• High Touch Society Smell, See, Feel, Hear
• Whys are Conjectures Now

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Japanese Mobilers

• Phone Based Web Services
• Small Screens
• Phone Based Texting /Short Messages
• Frequent short contacts
• rather than long statements
• Young Use Mobiles Mid/Old Use PCs
• Cohort or Age-Grade Effect?
• Richness vs Portability
• Incompatible Systems Hinder Social Cohesion

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The Double Internet Paradox

• (1a) First Age Hype Asserted that Internet
  Would Transform Society
• (1b) As, the Internet Became Embedded in
  Everyday Life
• (2a) Second Age Documenting the Embedding of
  the Internet in Everyday Life
• (2b) As Societies Quietly Transforming From
  Groups to Networks

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Turn Towards Networked Individualism

• Transportation Communication Have Become
  Individualized
• Dual Careers Multiple Schedules
• Multiple Employers
• Sequential and Contemporaneous
• Physical Separation of Work, Home, Commerce
• Movement of Work away from Workplace
• Teleworker, Flex Worker, Road Warrior
• Computerization Allows Personalization
• No Over-Arching Social Controllers

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Place To Place (GloCalization)

• (Phones, Networked PCs, Airplanes, Expressways,
  RR, Transit)
• Home, Office Important Contexts,
• Not Intervening Space
• Specialized Relationships Not MultiStranded
  Ties
• Ramified Sparsely Knit Not Local Solidarities
• Not neighborhood-based
• Not densely-knit with a group feeling
• Partial Membership in Multiple Workgroups/
  Communities
• Often Based on Shared Interest
• Connectivity Beyond Neighborhood, Work Site
• GloCalization Globally Connected, Locally
  Invested
• Household to Household /
• Work Group to Work Group
• Domestication, Feminization of Community
• Knowledge Comes From Internal External Sources

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Technological Changes Foster Social Affordances
forNew Forms of Community

• Bandwidth Information? Knowledge?
• Anytime 24 / 7 / 365
• Anywhere Ubiquity
• Globalized Connectivity
• Wireless Portability
• Convergence Any Medium Accesses All
• Personalization

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Person-to-Person Networked Individualism

• (Mobile Phones, Wireless Computing, Lonely Car)
• Individualized Networking
• Little Awareness of Context
• Private Desires Replace Public Civility
• Multiple Specialized Relationships
• Partial Membership in Multiple Networks
• Long-Distance Relationships
• More Transitory Relationships
• Online Interactions Linked with Offline
• More Uncertainty, More Maneuverability
• Less Palpable than Traditional Solidarities
  Alienation?
• Sparsely-Knit Fewer Direct Connections Than
  Door-To-Door
• Possibly Less Caring for Strangers
• More Weak Ties
• Need for Institutional Memory Knowledge
  Management

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The Six Socials

• Linkages Networks, Not Groups
• Capital Networking, not Org. Membership (Putnam)
• Cohesion No Single Commitment Crosscutting Ties
• Mobilization Interpersonal, Ad Hoc
• Control Maneuverability among Multiple Nets
• Exclusion Informed Use, not Access, to Internet

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Groups ? Networks

• Each in its Place ? Mobility of People and
  Goods
• United Family ? Serial Marriage, Mixed Custody
• Shared Community ? Multiple Partial Personal
  Nets
• Neighborhoods ? Dispersed Communities
• Surveillance ? Privacy
• Control ? Autonomy
• Voluntary Organizations ? Informal Leisure
• Face-to-Face ? Computer-Mediated
  Communication
• Public Spaces ? Private Spaces
• Visibility ? Anonymity
• Focused Work Unit ? Networked Organization
• Job in a Company ? Career in a Profession
• Autarky ? Outsourcing
• Office, Factory ? Airplane, Internet,
  Cellphone
• Ascription ? Achievement
• Hierarchies ? Multiple Reporting
  Relationships
• Conglomerates ? Virtual Organizations/Alliance
  s
• Collective Security ? Civil Liberties
• Cold War Blocs ? Fluid, Transitory Alliances

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Barry Wellman Caroline Haythornthwaite
editorsBlackwell Publishers, 2002Papers
atwww.chass.utoronto.ca/wellman
_at_chass.utoronto.ca
The Internet in Everyday Life