Networked for Life: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly A presentation by Barry Wellman (NetLab) as part of a session entitled Disconnecting from the Grid: Forward-thinking or Flawed Premise? at mesh14 in Toronto (May, 2014)

1. Barry Wellman
NetLab
iSchool, University of Toronto
http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/netlab/
wellman@chass.utoronto.ca

2. In a Nutshell
 The Bad:
 Fixed belief that we are becoming
more disconnected as our silos break down
 The Good
 Realization that the triple revolution is creating new,
less-silo’ed opportunities for connectivity
 The Ugly
 Doing the hard work of collecting
systematic evidence to evaluate networked life

4. 4
Traditional Small Groups: Door-to-Door “Silos”
• Old workgroups (& communities) based on
- proximity, bureaucratic hierarchy, kinship
•All observe and interact with all
• Deal with only one group
• Knowledge comes only from within the
group – and stays within the group

5. 5
The Bad: Recurrent Claims That
Things Are Always Falling Apart
 From urbanization, bureaucratization, industrialization,
capitalism/socialism & technological change – to the internet and
mobile
 Thomas Jefferson: great constitutionalist, but loved silos
 "The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure
government, as sores do to the strength of the human body” (1784)
 Ferdinand Tönnies (Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, 1887)
thru Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone, 2000)
to Sherry Turkle (Alone Together, 2010)

6. The Good
The Turn From Groups
To Social Networks
6

7. The Triple Revolution
 Three Phenomena Intertwined
 1. Social Network: Reach Beyond Tight Groups:
 More Multiplicity, Partial Attention, Less Boundaries
 2. Internet: Personalization, Weakened Distance
 3. Mobile-ization of Info & Communication
 Hyper-Personal Body Appendages: Third Skin
 Accessible To You
 Available To Others
 Networked Individualism
7

8. 8
18 Month Old Boys with their Favorite Toys:
Mom’s Laptop & Dad’s iPhone

9. Person To Person:
Networked Individualism
 Mobile Phones, Portable Computing
 Individual, not work group or household
 Personalized networking
 Tailored media interactions
 Hyperconnectivity
 Private concerns replace public
 Online interactions linked with offline
 Glocalization

10. 10
People Function as Networked Individuals
With Partial Membership in Multiple Networks
 .. and less as group or category members
 Social ties & events organized around the individual rather
than a social unit such as a family, neighborhood, school, or
organization
 The person has become the individual unit of
social connectivity; and not the place,
 be it workplace, school, or household
 Agency: Each person operates own network
 Mobile phones and internet allow person-to-person contact
to supplement place-to-place communication
 The social network revolution has provided the opportunities
– and stresses – for people
to reach beyond the world of tight groups

11. 11
Networked Individualism:
Person-to-Person
Structural Changes
Linked as Individuals
Less Groupiness
More Agency
Less Place Bound
More Achieved, Less Ascribed

12. The New Media is
The New Neighbourhood
 Lines between info, communication have blurred
 Geographic location is real, but less important
 In addition to neighbours, workmates:
 Most info-sharing transcends spatial & social boundaries
 Networked individuals can exchange & create media
 Projecting their voices to more extended audiences
that become part of their social worlds

13. MIT Press 358 pp $14 (Kindle $9)

14. The Ugly:
Actually Doing the Research
 Fourth study of residents of East York, Toronto since 1968
 In-depth interviews with 101 residents. Transcribed, anonymized
 Research Issues
 Nature of life in multiple teams
 How does digital fit into ordinary life
 And what does mobile add?
 Home-work connectivity
 Privacy concerns
 Variations by age, gender, SES, family situations

15. Preliminary Findings
 People value privacy – from each other, not institutions
(NSA, Google)
 Everyday use of digital media integrated with rest of life
– use whatever is handy and appropriate
 Multiple connectivity
 Lots more this year as we analyze

16. 16
Networked Individual --
Nelu Handa @ Internet Café, Toronto