Internet (Sociology)

Introduction

The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks (a network of networks). It is a technical network (involving computer hardware, systems for connecting computers to one another, and communication protocols) and a social network (involving human users sharing, storing, and retrieving information with one another). The global Internet is an instance of an “internet,” a much larger network of various interconnected networks. Each of these networks optimizes data flows within itself across various technical parameters (e.g., latency across different links in the network and overall bandwidth utilization). The Internet was designed to allow individual network administrations to operate as they pleased internally, but still interconnect to allow data to flow from one network to another, creating a seamless whole. Because the Internet is a type of network, it facilitates the connection of people using computers through interconnecting technologies. Thus, the Internet is not only a social and technical marvel in terms of size and scale of use, but it is also a critically important research site for sociologists. As stated in DiMaggio, et al. 2001 (cited under Social Uses of Information Technology) in a review of early sociological research on the Internet, the Internet is important for sociology because it allows researchers to test theories of diffusion and media effects. In addition, DiMaggio, et al. 2001 notes that the Internet as a medium is distinctive because it allows the integration of different modes of digital communication (e.g., voice, data, video, and text chat) and forms of content.

History

The technologies of the Internet have their origin in the ARPANET, a network funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the US Department of Defense (Beranek 2000, Abbate 1999, Hafner and Lyon 1998). Although these technologies were developed in a nonmilitary academic context, it cannot be forgotten that they have their roots in the Cold War (Edwards 1997) and the counterculture movement of the 1960s (Turner 2006). The ARPANET was initially funded to provide access to ARPA-funded computing installations from remote academic sites. These technologies were later extended to provide “internetworking” facilities connecting the ARPANET and the ARPA packet radio network. The ARPANET was succeeded by the NSFNET, a more modern network, funded by the National Science Foundation, intended to facilitate communications among research institutions across the United States and to serve as a test bed for evolving Internet technologies. The development of Internet technologies was not without incident, especially in the face of competing technologies (Russell 2006). The Internet as it is known today was born in 1994, when the NSFNET infrastructure was privatized and numerous independent networks interconnected to form a seamless whole (Abbate 1999; Leiner, et al. 1997). The deployment of World Wide Web technologies allowed the Internet to move beyond the realm of researchers to become accessible to ordinary citizens (Berners-Lee 2000).

Abbate, Janet. 1999. Inventing the Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the most thorough histories of the development of the Internet, tracing its roots from Baran’s work on a survivable military data network in the 1960s through the ARPANET and NSFNET eras to the founding of the Internet in the 1990s.
Find this resource:

Beranek, Leo. 2000. Roots of the Internet: A personal history. Massachusetts Historical Review 2:55–75.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A firsthand account of the development of the ARPANET, beginning with the formation of the firm of Bolt Beranek and Newman in 1948, which played a key role in the ARPANET.
Find this resource:

Berners-Lee, Tim. 2000. Weaving the web: The original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web. San Francisco: HarperCollins.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A firsthand account of the development of the technologies that created the World Wide Web over the infrastructure of the Internet.
Find this resource:

Edwards, Paul N. 1997. The closed world: Computers and the politics of discourse in Cold War America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although the book is not about the Internet, Edwards places the development of computing technology in the political context of the Cold War.
Find this resource:

Hafner, Katie, and Mathew Lyon. 1998. Where wizards stay up late: The origins of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A more accessible history of the Internet, beginning with the development of the ARPANET.
Find this resource:

Leiner, Barry M., Vinton G. Cerf, David D. Clark, et al. 1997. The past and future history of the Internet. Communications of the ACM 40.2: 102–108.
DOI: 10.1145/253671.253741Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A brief history of the Internet, as related firsthand by several of the most significant individuals in its development. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Russell, A. L. 2006. “Rough consensus and running code” and the Internet-OSI standards war. Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE 28.3: 48–61.
DOI: 10.1109/MAHC.2006.42Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An account of one of the most significant periods in the development of the Internet, the competition between the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network technology standards put forward by the International Standards Organization (a body in which nation-states have formal standing), and those developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force, a self-governing organization of computer scientists and network engineers.
Find this resource:

Turner, Fred. 2006. From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the whole earth network, and the rise of digital utopianism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Illustrates the emergence of libertarian cyberculture from the counterculture movements of the 1960s, with special attention to the counterculture figures who helped frame the utopian discourse around computer networks.
Find this resource:

Social Data Sources

Several key data sources are available for researchers who want to examine the social and technical aspects of the Internet. On the social side, a large number of surveys and ongoing Internet studies come from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The General Social Survey (GSS) available at NORC at the University of Chicago collected Internet use data in the 2000 Internet Module, which was then repeated in 2002. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) collected survey information to examine the dissemination of Internet use and adoption. Many other smaller studies have been conducted by research groups, such as The Internet 1995–2000: Access, Civic Involvement, and Social Interaction project at Rutgers University, the Web Use Project at Princeton University, and the HomeNet Project at Carnegie Mellon University. Data on international trends in Internet use and penetration are available from reports provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Telecommunication Union, and the World Bank.

The HomeNet Project.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The HomeNet studies were conducted in various years between 1995 and 1999 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The primary purpose was to examine attitudes and use of the Internet among general households and families involved in schools, communities, and home businesses. The study also expanded to a nationally representative survey in 2000–2002.
Find this resource:

International Telecommunication Union. World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The International Telecommunication Union reports a range of Internet usage data on more than two hundred economies, based on questionnaires gathered from national governments, regulatory authorities, and telecommunications operators.
Find this resource:

The Internet, 1995–2000: Access, Civic Involvement, and Social Interaction.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Syntopia project at Rutgers University was a national random telephone survey that examined various aspects of Internet use, as well as comparisons of attitudes and behaviors among Internet users and nonusers. The surveys include information about online versus offline communication, Internet versus other media forms, and relationships that shift from online interaction to face-to-face interaction.
Find this resource:

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The NTIA surveys are conducted through the US Census Bureau and the Current Population Survey. Because they are part of the national census, the NTIA surveys are currently the largest national samples of Internet usage. The NTIA surveys are especially famous for providing the first large-scale data about variations in Internet use among disadvantaged and minority groups (e.g., the Digital Divide).
Find this resource:

NORC at the University of Chicago.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The GSS is an in-home survey conducted under the auspices of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, which deals with a wide range of attitudes and opinions. In 2000 and 2002, the GSS included a small module of questions about where individuals get information (social interaction, radio, Internet, etc.), computer ownership, Internet access, and usage. The GSS Internet Module questions have also been replicated in other studies, such as the Web Use Project at Princeton University.
Find this resource:

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Broadband Portal.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Directorate for Science, Technology and Policy at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development provides a wide variety of data on global Internet access coverage, penetration, speeds, and prices.
Find this resource:

Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Pew Internet and American Life Project is a major project sponsored by the Pew Research Center. One of the major goals of the project is to create reliable data that can be used to address key debates about the impact of the Internet. The project has several databases on topics including cell phones, Internet services, online banking, online dating, gaming, and blogging.
Find this resource:

Web Use Project.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Web Use Project began at Princeton University in examining how Americans use the web in their everyday lives. The original project was based on interviews with a random sample of individuals who were recruited from various geographic areas to participate in the study. This study combined elements from other surveys, such as the GSS Internet module, with in-person observation sessions of Internet use. The project subsequently moved to Northwestern University, where it is headed by Eszter Hargittai and her research team.
Find this resource:

World Bank. Infrastructure Data.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The World Bank provides national data on trends in several Internet-related indicators, including imports and exports of information and communication technologies goods and services, Internet users, and international bandwidth.
Find this resource:

Technical Data Sources

Technical data dealing with the structure of the Internet and the volumes of traffic flowing across different Internet links are available from the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) (Data: Overview of Data Sets, Monitors, and Reports), the University of Oregon Route Views project, and the Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies (MINTS) at the University of Minnesota.

Data: Overview of Data Sets, Monitors, and Reports.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
CAIDA, a collaborative grouping of research, government, and commercial organizations based at the University of California’s San Diego Supercomputer Center, provides a variety of data sets, including Internet traffic data, routing information, details of the spread of Internet worms, and more.
Find this resource:

Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies (MINTS).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
MINTS collects publicly reported data on Internet traffic from a variety of sources, including Internet exchange points and academic institutions. Actual volumes of traffic crossing the Internet are difficult to estimate, because these data are private to the individual networks involved. However, MINTS provides a useful aggregate view of trends in traffic growth from sources that choose to publicly disclose these data.
Find this resource:

University of Oregon Route Views.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The Internet is a complex graph of interconnected networks. The Route Views project provides data about the structure of this graph by collecting routing information at several global locations. Data are available from October 2001 onward. Note that Route Views data cannot be used to construct an exhaustive view of all edges in this graph; only edges visible from routes passing through Route Views collectors are available.
Find this resource:

Organizations for Sociology and Internet Research

A variety of organizations are devoted to the social-scientific study of the Internet. Large organizations such as the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) and General Online Research (GOR) hold annual conferences and are openly interdisciplinary. In addition, the Communication & Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological Association (CITASA) holds regular paper sessions, roundtable paper presentations, and a section meeting at the annual ASA conference.

Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
AoIR is an international association for Internet studies. It is an interdisciplinary organization that holds an annual conference and provides an online mailing list, newsletter, and wiki.
Find this resource:

Communication and Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological Association (CITASA).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The official section of the ASA that supports and promotes research, teaching, and professional activities related to the social aspects of computing, the Internet, new media, computer networks, and other communication and information technologies.
Find this resource:

General Online Research (GOR).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
GOR deals with research, innovation, and practical experiences in the field of online research. This includes all methods and theories dealing with collection of data through online networks, as well as the effects of Internet applications and technologies in society. The interdisciplinary organization holds an annual conference, open to those from all disciplinary approaches who conduct research on the Internet.
Find this resource:

Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet).
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An international community of scholars focusing on issues of Internet governance, which is also actively engaged with the key policymakers involved in Internet governance.
Find this resource:

Journals

No major sociology journals are currently devoted explicitly to Internet research. However, research specifically dealing with the Internet as a social phenomenon is occasionally published in major sociological venues, including the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Psychology Quarterly, Social Problems, and the various regional sociology journals. A variety of interdisciplinary journals, such as The Information Society; Information, Communication & Society; the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication; New Media & Society; Media, Culture & Society; and the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, combine information science, computer science, sociology, communications, and media studies in covering social issues and the Internet. These journals embrace a variety of topics, including (1) the social uses of information technology and information systems on the Internet and computer-mediated environments more broadly, (2) the mutual influence between the Internet as a technology and social life, and (3) organizational, institutional, and policy issues associated with managing and coordinating the Internet. Other journals, such as the Journal of Information Technology & Politics, lean more toward political science and sociology, whereas online journals such as First Monday are open to all perspectives, provided the article submissions deal specifically with the Internet.

First Monday.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An openly accessible, peer-reviewed journal on the Internet, exclusively devoted to topics about the Internet. The editors and editorial board accept articles on a variety of Internet issues, and the journal does not identify with any particular discipline or perspective.
Find this resource:

Information, Communication & Society.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A multidisciplinary journal that seeks current work on the social, economic, and cultural impact of information and communication technologies. The journal aims to engage in contemporary debates that relate to information and the information age.
Find this resource:

The Information Society.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A multidisciplinary journal that deals with a wide range of issues about information. These include regulatory issues, information in public and private organizations, Internet policy, and information use.
Find this resource:

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An interdisciplinary, fully refereed scholarly and technical periodical that publishes research related to information science and technology. The journal publishes empirical, experimental, ethnographic, conceptual, historical, sociotechnical, policy-analytical, and critical-theoretical research.
Find this resource:

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that focuses on social science research on computer-mediated communication through the Internet and other connecting technologies. The journal’s scope is interdisciplinary and draws primarily from the areas of communication, sociology, political science, media studies, information science, and business, among others.
Find this resource:

Journal of Information Technology & Politics.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A journal devoted to research and critical discussion about challenges and opportunities presented by information technology in politics and government. The journal seeks to foster development of new tools and theories on information technology, to encourage development of governmental and political processes that use information technology, and to promote a better understanding of how information technologies interact with political and governmental processes.
Find this resource:

Media, Culture & Society.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An interdisciplinary and international journal for the presentation of new research and ongoing discussion about media and information communication technologies. The journal focuses on substantive topics related to information technology and the Internet as well as on critiques of, and topics concerning innovations in, methodologies and theory.
Find this resource:

New Media & Society.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An interdisciplinary journal that deals primarily with critical discussions of issues relating to new media development and use. Major topics include issues of information consumption, innovation, culture and the Internet, community in electronic spaces such as the Internet, and the politics of cyberspace.
Find this resource:

Social Uses of Information Technology

The Internet is of great interest to sociologists, in large part because it facilitates many different forms of social interaction. Before the development of the World Wide Web, social interaction on the Internet occurred primarily through technologies such as electronic mail (e-mail), USENET newsgroups, and Internet relay chat (IRC). When the Internet was in its infancy, many individuals connected to smaller computer networks such as Bulletin Board Systems. Many of the first social-scientific studies of networked computer technologies focused on the social uses of these early tools for creating online communities and for interpersonal communication on the Internet (Baym 1999, Kiesler 1997, Rafaeli 1986, Rheingold 1993, Turkle 1995). This sociological research on use, behaviors, and social outcomes remains relevant today, regardless of changes in specific technologies. Computer-mediated communication systems have since shifted from singular technologies, such as IRC, to diverse collections of Internet communication systems that use various combinations of text, video, and audio. DiMaggio, et al. 2001 provides a much-needed synthesis of sociological work about the Internet and the social implications of using the Internet, in addition to providing a road map for social scientists with an interest in the Internet as a sociological phenomenon. Cavanagh 2007 supplements and extends these works, providing an overview of sociological approaches to the Internet. These theoretical and methodological approaches continue to be applied to the study of existing social processes and new technical phenomena, such as search engines (Hargittai 2007).

Baym, Nancy K. 1999. Tune in, log on: Soaps, fandom, and online community. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An ethnographic study of a fan group for an Internet soap opera, which provides a deep and rich analysis of computer-mediated communication and the collaborative practices that can emerge in these settings.
Find this resource:

Cavanagh, Allison. 2007. Sociology in the age of the Internet. Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill International.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A review of many different theoretical and methodological claims that are made with relation to the Internet. This book offers a good overview of some of the key topics and areas of inquiry in the sociology of the Internet.
Find this resource:

DiMaggio, Paul, Eszter Hargittai, W. Russell Neuman, and John P. Robinson. 2001. Social implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology 27:307–336.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.307Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This annual review article covers the major sociological domains in Internet research until 2001: inequality, community/social capital, political participation, organizations and economic institutions, and cultural participation and diversity. This essential reading also helps to dispel common misperceptions that the Internet is either utopian or dystopian; the authors argue that the Internet is best understood in terms of nuance, adaptation, and processes of change. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Hargittai, Eszter. 2007. The social, political, economic and cultural dimensions of search engines. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12.3: 769–777.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00349.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Rather than viewing search engines merely as technical phenomena, the author presents the range of sociological processes within which search engines are embedded. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Kiesler, Sara B. 1997. Culture of the Internet. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An edited volume that combines interdisciplinary research about how humans use electronic communication and the Internet. The book focuses on how scientists think about social processes on the Internet, as well as encouraging research-based contributions to thinking about debates in online social behavior.
Find this resource:

Rafaeli, Sheizaf. 1986. The electronic bulletin board: A computer-driven mass medium. Computers and the Social Sciences 2.3: 123–136.
DOI: 10.1177/089443938600200302Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An early study of bulletin board systems and social interaction. An important examination of how motivations such as play and the promise of social interaction can affect use of electronic information systems. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Rheingold, Howard. 1993. The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Howard Rheingold is widely credited with being the first to investigate online communities from a participant-observation perspective. The book discusses the differences and similarities between community on the Internet and in everyday offline life.
Find this resource:

Turkle, Sherry. 1995. Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of the ways that Internet users (so-called netizens) consume information and participate in social interaction online. The book explores many different online systems, including early online games, bulletin boards, and private domains for anonymous and pseudonymous social interaction.
Find this resource:

Theoretical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Interaction

As popular technologies evolved on the Internet and within organizations, sociologists and social psychologists have applied social theory to key social problems on the Internet and in online interaction. Researchers have documented and analyzed patterns of use and the differences afforded by information technologies that are relatively lean (e.g., text chat) compared to those that are rich (e.g., face-to-face interaction) in shared information (Daft and Lengel 1984, Dennis and Kinney 1998). Other theoretical perspectives emerged to help explain how information technologies allow some contextual cues to pass through to others, while others do not (Sproull and Kiesler 1986). Yet another group of perspectives emerged to explain how individuals perceive one another through expression and interpretation in different types of communications media. For example, individuals behave differently in the presence of anonymity in online interaction (Lea and Spears 1991), and online interpersonal relationships may take longer to form than those conducted face-to-face (Walther 1992). In addition, the “hyperpersonal effect” in Walther 1996 explains how individuals can create a positive bias toward others when they interact through lean media rather than through rich media.

Daft, R. L., and R. H. Lengel. 1984. Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and organizational design. In Research in organizational behavior. Vol. 6. Edited by Larry L. Cummings and Barry M. Staw, 191–233. Homewood, IL: JAI.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article presents media richness theory, which posits that communications media will vary in their ability to create, distribute, or re-create information that passes through them. Based on this framework, richer media, such as video and audio, are viewed as more effective than leaner media, such as text-only chat, when individuals attempt to communicate issues with ambiguous outcomes.
Find this resource:

Dennis, Alan R., and Susan T. Kinney. 1998. Testing media richness theory in the new media: The effects of cues, feedback, and task equivocality. Information Systems Research 9.3: 256–274.
DOI: 10.1287/isre.9.3.256Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
One of the major perspectives in online interaction on the Internet and in other forms of computer-mediated interaction is that individuals behave differently in leaner forms of media (e.g., text) than in richer forms (e.g., video or face-to-face). This is one of the essential tests of this idea, and it has formed the basis for other research in the area. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Lea, Martin, and Russell Spears. 1991. Computer-mediated communication, de-individuation and group decision-making. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 34.2: 283–301.
DOI: 10.1016/0020-7373(91)90045-9Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Introduces the Social Identity of De-individuation Effects perspective, which argues that anonymity changes the relative importance of social identity compared to one’s personal identity. This perspective is one of the major perspectives about computer-mediated communication, along with competing theories such as Joseph Walther’s Social Information Processing (SIP) theory (Walther 1992) and hyperpersonal model of interpersonal communication (Walther 1996). Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Sproull, Lee, and Sara Kiesler. 1986. Reducing social context cues: Electronic mail in organizational communication. Management Science 32.11: 1492–1512.
DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.32.11.1492Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of electronic mail (e-mail) in Fortune 500 organizations, using questionnaire data and e-mail content analysis. An important early study of social communication through computer-mediated systems and how individuals exchange different types of information through e-mail compared to other mediums. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Walther, Joseph B. 1992. Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research 19.1: 52–90.
DOI: 10.1177/009365092019001003Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Introduces SIP theory, which suggests that the development of online interpersonal relationships requires more time than does face-to-face interaction. Despite the lack of cues in many online interactions, people are assumed to fill in the gaps and accomplish their intended communication goals. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Walther, Joseph B. 1996. Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research 23.1: 3–43.
DOI: 10.1177/009365096023001001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Introduces the concept of the “hyperpersonal effect,” which suggests that individuals who communicate through lean media (e.g., e-mail or text chat) are able to strategically self-present themselves to others. In addition, individuals tend to fill in missing or incomplete information optimistically. These two effects work together to create a positive bias in computer-mediated social interaction compared to rich forms, such as face-to-face interaction. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Social Networks

An increasing amount of contemporary sociological work on Internet communities and social use of information technology focuses on social networking systems (e.g., MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter). The explosion of online social networking systems has brought sociological social network theory and principles to the forefront of popular discussion, as core theoretical concepts, which may have once seemed byzantine, now have practical meaning in the contemporary Internet environment. Early discussions in Wellman, et al. 1996 helped to frame later advancements in methods for visualizing online networks (Welser, et al. 2007; Hogan, et al. 2007) and debates about the uses of specific social network technologies (Ellison, et al. 2007; Haythornthwaite 2005; Tufekci 2008), as well as larger discussions about what constitutes a social network site (boyd and Ellison 2007, Beer 2008).

Beer, David. 2008. Social network(ing) sites . . . revisiting the story so far: A response to danah boyd & Nicole Ellison. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.2: 516–529.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2008.00408.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article follows up on the discussion in boyd and Ellison 2007 on scholarship on social network sites (SNS) as well as their definition of what constitutes social networks. Beer deals primarily with the distinction between SNS (a broad concept) and social networking sites (a more specific instance of SNS). Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

boyd, danah m., and Nicole Ellison. 2007. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. In Special issue: Social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This essay is meant as a defining piece both to help clarify what constitutes SNS on the Internet and to identify some of the key scholarship in the area. This opening article also provides context for this 2007 special issue on Internet SNS of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
Find this resource:

Ellison, Nicole B., Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lampe. 2007. The benefits of Facebook ‘friends’: Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12.4: 1143–1168.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A quantitative survey examination of the popular SNS, Facebook. This article demonstrates the link between different types of social capital, psychological well-being, and use of Facebook among undergraduate college students. More broadly, this research is important for contextualizing different SNS and using empirical analysis to explore the relationships between use of SNS and behavior.
Find this resource:

Haythornthwaite, Caroline. 2005. Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. Information, Communication & Society 8.2: 125–147.
DOI: 10.1080/13691180500146185Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Empirical study examining social interaction and how it relates to social networking communication media. Key implications of this work include the use of media as a characteristic of social network ties, the activation of weak ties by way of media use, and how media use can support different types of information flow.
Find this resource:

Hogan, Bernie, Juan A. Carrasco, and Barry Wellman. 2007. Visualizing personal networks: Working with participant-aided sociograms. Field Methods 19.2: 116–144.
DOI: 10.1177/1525822X06298589Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article describes an interview-based data collection procedure that is designed to help gather social network information from an individual’s own network. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Tufekci, Zeynep. 2008. Grooming, gossip, Facebook and MySpace: What can we learn about social networking sites from non-users. Information, Communication & Society 11.4: 544–564.
DOI: 10.1080/13691180801999050Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the swift adoption of social networking sites through mixed-methods analysis of US college students. Building on key sociological concepts such as self-presentation and social grooming, the author’s research examines differences and similarities between the friendship structures among Internet users and nonusers. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Wellman, Barry, Janet Salaff, Dimitrina Dimitrova, Laura Garton, Milena Gulia, and Caroline Haythornthwaite. 1996. Computer networks as social networks: Collaborative work, telework, and virtual community. Annual Review of Sociology 22:213–238.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.213Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This annual review piece is an important contribution to the early discussions of the Internet and social networks, long before the rise of SNS such as MySpace or Facebook. The authors examine computer-supported social networks, and primary focus is given to concepts from social network theory, such as weak ties, strong ties, and multiplex relationships. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Welser, Howard T., Eric Gleave, Danyel Fisher, and Marc Smith. 2007. Visualizing the signatures of social roles in online discussion groups. Journal of Social Structure 8.2.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Uses visualization methods to explore and reveal structural signatures of communication between network members in online discussion groups. Advances the science of identifying role behaviors through implicit information and trace behaviors. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Collective Action, Reputation, Trust, and Privacy

Smith and Kollock 1999 is a principal book in the history of the sociological study of the Internet, in large part because it was the first edited volume to bring influential leading sociologists together to rigorously discuss issues such as identity creation, collective action, and social control on the emerging Internet. As the Internet became a serious location for empirical social-scientific research in the late 1990s and early 21st century, sociologists branched into different focal areas of interpersonal interaction and collective behavior, including trust and reputation (Cook, et al. 2009; Kollock 1999), privacy and surveillance (Bennett and Lyon 2008, Lyon 2007), the creation of online public information goods (Cheshire and Antin 2008), and online social movements (Earl 2010).

Bennett, Colin J., and David Lyon, eds. 2008. Playing the identity card: Surveillance, security and identification in global perspective. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume explores current and long-term trends in e-government and the emergence of identity systems. In the process, many questions about privacy, surveillance, and human rights are considered.
Find this resource:

Cheshire, Coye, and Judd Antin. 2008. The social psychological effects of feedback on the production of Internet information pools. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.3: 705–727.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2008.00416.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
The article argues that collective behavior of individuals who share information on the Internet can create valuable public resources called information pools. This article reviews key sociological research on collective action and presents a field experiment to demonstrate the effectiveness of feedback mechanisms on contribution behavior. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Cook, Karen S., Chris Snijders, Vincent Buskins, and Coye Cheshire, eds. 2009. eTrust: Forming relationships in the online world. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This volume brings together experts in the field to articulate the conditions under which trust can evolve online, providing theoretical and practical insights for those interested in how online relationships influence decision making. The empirical research reported in the book includes laboratory experiments, field studies, and survey research.
Find this resource:

Earl, Jennifer. 2010. The dynamics of protest-related diffusion on the web. Information, Communication & Society 13.2: 209–225.
DOI: 10.1080/13691180902934170Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An examination of the diffusion processes associated with online protests and social movements. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Kollock, Peter. 1999. The production of trust in online markets. In Advances in group processes. Vol. 16. Edited by E. J. Lawler, M. Macy, S. Thye, and H. A. Walker. Stamford, CT: JAI.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Among the earliest sociological studies of trust and cooperative behavior in emerging online marketplaces such as eBay.
Find this resource:

Lyon, David. 2007. Surveillance studies: An overview. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An overview of the state of surveillance studies in the context of classical and contemporary debates. Many international examples frame the discussion, and the work draws from sociology as well as political science, geography, policy, cultural studies, and organizational research.
Find this resource:

Smith, Marc A., and Peter Kollock, eds. 1999. Communities in cyberspace. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An influential collection of chapters devoted to sociological questions of Internet identity, social order, the structure and dynamic of online communities, and online communities as a foundation for collective action.
Find this resource:

Digital Divide and Social Inclusion

After the rapid growth of the Internet and the adoption of Internet communication technologies in the early 1990s, many researchers and politicians began to worry about a possible gap in possession of computers by underprivileged groups and ethnic minorities in the United States (Norris 2001). Surveys conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration played a critical role in popularizing interest in the topic, because they provided large-scale empirical data about disparities between computer ownership as well as availability of Internet access within the United States and also between countries (Guillén and Suárez 2005). Sociologists examine differences in access to information technology and the Internet, especially as it correlates with ethnic differences (Mesch and Talmud 2011) and gender (Cotten, et al. 2009). Academics from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, began to weigh in on issues such as whether computer and information technology ownership (e.g., physical access) is as important as the larger social process of social inclusion; that is, the extent to which individuals are able to fully participate in their surrounding groups, communities, and societies in online and offline settings (Hampton 2010, Warschauer 2004, Witte and Mannon 2009, Zhao and Elesh 2008).

Cotten, Shelia R., Will Anderson, and Zeynep Tufekci. 2009. Old wine in a new technology or a different type of digital divide? New Media & Society 11.7: 1163–1186.
DOI: 10.1177/1461444809342056Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Many of the earlier studies of gender and the use of information technology focus solely on the Internet. This research expands our understanding of gender differences among youth as they relate to other information and communication technologies, such as mobile phones. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Guillén, Mauro F., and Sandra L. Suárez. 2005. Explaining the global digital divide: Economic, political and sociological drivers of cross-national Internet use. Social Forces 84.2: 681–708.
DOI: 10.1353/sof.2006.0015Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Using data from 118 countries from 1997 to 2001, the authors explore the relationships between Internet use and world-system status, privatization and competition in the telecommunications sector, democracy, and cosmopolitanism. The article constitutes an important contribution to the larger discussion of global, cross-national differences in Internet use and key country-level characteristics such as economic policies and regulatory environments. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Hampton, Keith N. 2010. Internet use and the concentration of disadvantage: Glocalization and the urban underclass. American Behavioral Scientist 53.8: 1111–1132.
DOI: 10.1177/0002764209356244Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Calls attention to the changes in the contexts within which inequalities are produced with the advent of the Internet. Argues that the affordances provided by the Internet provide the possibility of reduced social and civic inequality within communities, in contrast to the affordance of prior media such as the telephone and face-to-face contact. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Mesch, Gustavo S., and Ilan Talmud. 2011. Ethnic differences in Internet access: The role of occupation and exposure. Information, Communication & Society 14.4: 445–471.
DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2011.562218Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Investigates the sources of ethnic differential access to the Internet, drawing on the assumption that partial overlap between ethnicity and the occupational structure may disadvantage minorities in occupations with less exposure to computers and the Internet. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Norris, Pippa. 2001. Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the Internet worldwide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Examines the evidence for inequality between those with access to information and those without it. This cross-national examination of use and access to the Internet makes key comparisons between developing societies and the more industrialized nations. In addition, divides in these societies are also discussed with respect to those who use the Internet to enhance public life and those who do not.
Find this resource:

Warschauer, Mark. 2004. Technology and social inclusion: Rethinking the digital divide. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Warschauer helped shift the debate from the overly simplistic concept of the “digital divide” to a more nuanced discussion of social inclusion and information technology. The central thesis of this book and accompanying empirical support is that the issue of inequality and the Internet is not really about “haves and have-nots”; instead, it is about the ways in which access to various technologies can contribute to social inclusion or stark differences in social and economic outcomes.
Find this resource:

Witte, James, and Susan E. Mannon. 2009. The Internet and social inequalities. Contemporary Sociological Perspectives Series. New York: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Discusses how the nature and uses of the Internet mirror social inequalities in other facets of life. Examines how social stratification is taking place online and offline.
Find this resource:

Zhao, Shanyang, and David Elesh. 2008. The second digital divide: Unequal access to social capital in the online world. International Review of Modern Sociology 33.2: 171–192.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Distinguishes between conceptions of the digital divide that are based on physical access to online technologies and a “second digital divide” arising from differential access to valued online networks. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Governance

The Internet is a global system involving a range of actors, including nation-states, corporations, public interest groups, and international organizations. The governance of this system is accordingly complex, defined by interactions among these actors and the limits and capabilities of computer-networking technologies. This is made all the more complex because the key organizations of global Internet governance, such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or the Internet Engineering Task Force, are not established under international agreements. The emerging field of Internet governance deals with the study of the politics of this intricate social and technical assemblage. The problem of governance covers a wide range of issues, including the design and deployment of technology standards (Clark, et al. 2004; DeNardis 2009); debates about the role of national governments, civil society, the private sector, and international institutions (Goldsmith and Wu 2006; Mathiason 2008; Mathiason, et al. 2004); and the politics of managing scarce Internet resources (Mueller 2004).

Clark, David D., John Wroclawski, Karen R. Sollins, and Robert Braden. 2004. Tussle in cyberspace: Defining tomorrow’s Internet. In Proceedings of the 2002 Conference on Applications, Technologies, Architectures, and Protocols for Computer Communications: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, August 19-23, 2002. By David D. Clark, John Wroclawski, Karen R. Sollins, and Robert Braden, 347–356. Pittsburgh, PA: ACM Digital Library.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A discussion of technical design principles that may be required to account for tussles among the opposing interests represented by the diverse stakeholders involved in developing and managing the Internet.
Find this resource:

DeNardis, Laura. 2009. Protocol politics: The globalization of Internet governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Illustrates the political, economic, and technical factors at play in the transition to a newer version of one of the core Internet technologies; namely, the Internet Protocol.
Find this resource:

Goldsmith, Jack, and Tim Wu. 2006. Who controls the Internet? Illusions of a borderless world. New York: Oxford University Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
In contrast to the popular view that the Internet lies beyond the reach of nation-states, this book calls attention to the role of national governments in governing the Internet.
Find this resource:

Mathiason, John. 2008. Internet governance: The new frontier of global institutions. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Uses international regime theory to trace the evolution of multistakeholder institutions in the governance of the Internet, in which civil society and the private sector participate along with national governments and international institutions.
Find this resource:

Mathiason, John, Milton L. Mueller, Hans Klein, Marc Holitscher, and Lee W. McKnight. 2004. Internet Governance: The State of Play. Internet Governance Project.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An overview of the governance functions involved in managing the Internet and the key organizations involved in Internet governance.
Find this resource:

Mueller, Milton L. 2004. Ruling the root: Internet governance and the taming of cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
An account of the political struggles over the Internet’s “root”: the central technical/institutional location that administers scarce Internet resources, such as domain names and Internet Protocol addresses.
Find this resource:

Information Society

The sense exists that information increasingly structures social, cultural, political, and economic interactions in societies. This notion of the primacy of information in the function of societies finds expression in a variety of concepts: knowledge society, network society (Castells 2010), postindustrial society (Bell 1976), and postmodern society. Information Society has come to be the commonly accepted term for the idea of a society in which information plays a dominant structuring role, of which Castells 2010 is perhaps the best-known exponent. However, important questions remain about the extent to which society is structured by information, and whether the Information Society marks a departure, or an incremental progression, from past social forms (Garnham 2000, Drori 2007). Contemporary analysts have shown how the concept of the Information Society must be understood as conditioned by contemporary capitalism (Garnham 2000); authoritarian regimes (Kalathil and Boas 2003); existing political arrangements (Chadwick and Howard 2008); symbolic representations, structures, and institutions (Mansell 2004); and even the technological forms of the Internet (Lessig 2006).

Bell, Daniel. 1976. The coming of post-industrial society. New York: Basic Books.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Although some of Bell’s forecasts have not stood the test of time, he was among the first to elaborate elements of the Information Society (although he preferred the term postindustrial society), including the shift from an industrial economy to a services economy; the increase in the influence of intellectuals, professionals, and technical workers; and knowledge-based processes of innovation and policy formation.
Find this resource:

Castells, Manuel. 2010. The rise of the network society. 2d ed. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This renowned series on the Information Society (originally published in 1996) deals with the reconstruction of space and time through technological means, the emergence of a new mode of knowledge-based production (“informationalism”), the contradictions between global networks and local cultural identities, and issues of marginalization and the global criminal economy. Works by Castells following The Rise of the Network Society include The Power of Identity (1997; 2d ed., Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) and End of Millennium (1998; 2d ed., Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010).
Find this resource:

Chadwick, Andrew, and Philip N. Howard, eds. 2008. Routledge handbook of Internet politics. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A collection of works dealing with the role of the Internet in contemporary political life, engaging with a wide range of issues, including political parties and election campaigns, security, privacy and surveillance, and e-government.
Find this resource:

Drori, Gili S. 2007. Information society as a global policy agenda: What does it tell us about the age of globalization? International Journal of Comparative Sociology 48.4: 297–316.
DOI: 10.1177/0020715207079532Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Traces the rise of the Information Society, and associated inequalities defined by access to information, in global policy discourse. Argues that this must be understood as a consequence of the processes of globalization, especially their cultural and institutional dimensions.
Find this resource:

Garnham, Nicholas. 2000. “Information society” as theory or ideology. Information, Communication & Society 3.2: 139–152.
DOI: 10.1080/13691180050123677Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Proposes that the Information Society is better understood as an ideological position, rather than as a coherent theoretical concept. Analyzes the higher-education system using tools from political economy to show how the Information Society is grounded in contemporary capitalism. Available online by subscription.
Find this resource:

Kalathil, Shanthi, and Taylor C. Boas. 2003. Open networks, closed regimes: The impact of the Internet on authoritarian rule. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Provides a corrective to the notion that the Internet is an intrinsically democratic force, through an empirically founded examination of its effect on relationships among the state, the market, and the civil society, under a wide range of authoritarian regimes.
Find this resource:

Lessig, Lawrence. 2006. Code and other laws of cyberspace: Version 2.0. New York: Basic Books.
Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Illustrates how the specific forms of Internet technologies can invisibly shape social interactions enabled by the Internet, effectively obscuring from view the power relations involved in constructing these technologies.
Find this resource:

Mansell, Robin. 2004. Political economy, power and new media. New Media & Society 6.1: 74–83.
DOI: 10.1177/1461444804039910Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the political economy of new media, in spite of a range of studies focusing on the use of new media. Provides a framework for analyzing issues of power and authority in new media, in terms of symbolic form, meaning, action, structures, and institutions.