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1. Social Implication of the Internet and Social Media
Introduction
The Internet is the decisive technology of the Information Age, as the electrical
engine was the vector of technological transformation of the Industrial Age. This
global network of computer networks, largely based nowadays on platforms of
wireless communication, provides ubiquitous capacity of multimodal, interactive
communication in chosen time, transcending space. (Castells, 2013)
It was started by the U.S. Department of Defense back in the early 1970s and
was called ARPANET. In its early years was used primarily by scientist and
computer experts (Dominick, 2013). But it was in the 1990s when it was
privatized and released from the control of the U.S. Department of Commerce
that it diffused around the world at extraordinary speed: in 1996 the first survey
of Internet users counted about 40 million (Castells, 2013). But now, in January
2015 there are 3,010 billion active internet users via a variety of different
devices out of 7,210 billion of total global population. (Kemp, 2015)
With technological improvement and public accessibility, the internet has
become a mass medium and has changed our world dramatically. It has
aroused strong public discussions from one extreme to the next on its
implications on society. On one hand, the internet can be seen for its great
advantages, it has become a public forum in the form of freedom, connectivity
and many other social benefits which continue to develop at an accelerating
rate.
The rise of the Internet has sparked a debate about how online communication
affects social relationships. The Internet frees us from geographic fetters and
brings us together in topic-based communities that are not tied down to any
specific place. Ours is a networked, globalized society connected by new
technologies (Dentzel, 2013).

2. But, any process of major technological change generates its own mythology.
In part because it comes into practice before scientists can assess its effects
and implications, so there is always a gap between social change and its
understanding. For instance, media often report that intense use of the Internet
increases the risk of alienation, isolation, depression, and withdrawal from
society. (Castells, 2013)
Thus, the remit of this essay is to discuss the social implication of the internet,
whether is it increase the sociability or not. It will focus on research findings and
the work of authors in this field. A critical approach will raise arguments both in
support and against the implications of the internet. An evaluation of the
evidence will assist in the conclusion of the essay.
The Network Society
The internet has a huge impact on changing the way people communicate with
each other. The internet allows one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many to
communicate over the internet easily and inexpensively through the use of
social networking sites and chartrooms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
and Google+. Users are able to communicate with a variety of individuals
across the globe. Communication over the internet allows two or more people
to express and share their values and opinions with each other, which could
lead to the creation of intimacy and the following of actions.
Our society is a network society, that is, a society constructed around personal
and organizational networks powered by digital networks and communicated
by the Internet. And because networks are global and know no boundaries, the
network society is a global network society.
Martin (2015) stated, according to We Are Social's "Digital Statshot 002" data
report, that there are currently about 2 billion active social media accounts
worldwide-equating to a whopping penetration of 28% of the planet's population,
with about roughly 1.6 billion of these accounts active via mobile. What's more,
72% of all internet users are currently active on social media.

3. A primary dimension of these digital revolution and some major sociocultural
changes is what has been labelled the rise of the Me-centered society, or, in
sociological terms, the process of individuation, the decline of community
understood in terms of space, work, family, and ascription in general. (Castells,
2013)
Wellman (2001) argues that the Internet has contributed to a shift from a group-
based to a network-based society that is decoupling community and geographic
propinquity, and thus requiring new understandings and operationalisations of
the former. Yet, Turkle’s (2013) new book ‘‘Alone Together’’ which concludes
that our social preferences are evolving to include, and in some cases favor,
technology over people. And indicates that SNSs could contribute to differences
in the experience and conceptual representations of loneliness and
connectedness.
Even though there is a process of individuation in shift from mass-
communication based on mass media to mass self-communication based on
the Internet. But individuation, as Castells (2013) argues, does not mean
isolation, or even less the end of community. Sociability is reconstructed as
networked individualism and community through a quest for like-minded
individuals in a process that combines online interaction with offline interaction,
cyberspace and the local space.
Academic research has acknowledged that the Internet does not isolate people,
nor does it reduce their sociability; it actually increases sociability, as Rainie
and Wellman (2012) conceptualized the network society, and the form of
sociability is what as networked individualism.
Other studies reported, Social Networking Sites supporting bonding and
bridging capital, and more contact with family, friends, and acquaintances
(Brandtzæg, L¨uders, & Skjetne, 2010). Also increasing friendships, both offline
and online (Wang & Wellman, 2010)
Furthermore, a major study by Michael Willmott for the British Computer Society
(Willmott & Flatters, 2010) has shown a positive correlation, for individuals and
for countries, between the frequency and intensity of the use of the Internet and

4. the psychological indicators of personal happiness. He used global data for
35,000 people obtained from the World Wide Survey of the University of
Michigan from 2005 to 2007. Controlling for other factors, the study showed
that Internet use empowers people by increasing their feelings of security,
personal freedom, and influence, all feelings that have a positive effect on
happiness and personal well-being.
The effect is particularly positive for people with lower income and who are less
qualified, for people in the developing world, and for women. Age does not
affect the positive relationship; it is significant for all ages. Why women?
Because they are at the centre of the network of their families, Internet helps
them to organize their lives. Also, it helps them to overcome their isolation,
particularly in patriarchal societies.
Examining the results in light of the current media debate, they do not support
the anxiety about ‘‘antisocial networking’’ or low social involvement. SNSs
communication does not seem to replace intimacy or face-to-face interaction.
In fact, SNS users are actually more likely to socially interact face-to-face and
report more social capital compared to nonusers.
However, if relationships are started and developed over the internet between
two people, when meeting each other for the first time face-to-face
complications may occur. The ways in which two people interact with each other
over the internet differ from when face-to-face. For example, body language
and facial expression is made visible when face-to-face compared to when
interacting online. It can be said that because people are able to interact over
the internet they tend to take less time and make less effort to involve in face-
to-face interactions, which is harmful to how they react in social interactions.
Based on the findings from previous research, it shows that Internet increase
the sociability in the society. Nevertheless, these results suggest that the usage
of Internet and SNSs, and social contact are supplementary, and might extend
existing levels of social contact.

5. Conclusion
In concluding the evidence found though research it is clear that the internet
raises mix reaction from both its users and its critics. In order to begin to
understand the social and cultural implications of the internet it is vital that one
is able to recognise the internet's positive and negative aspects and how each
service provided by the internet is used to benefit the individual.
The Internet, as all technologies, does not produce effects by itself. Yet, it has
specific effects in altering the capacity of the communication system to be
organized around flows that are interactive, global or local, and from many to
many, from people to people, from people to objects, and from objects to
objects, increasingly relying on the semantic web (Castells, 2013). How these
characteristics affect specific systems of social relationships has to be
established by research.
What is clear is that without the Internet we would not have seen the large-scale
development of networking as the crucial mechanism of social structuring and
social change in every aspect of social life. Thus, as a social construction, this
technological system is open ended, as the network society is an open-ended
form of social organization that brings the best and the worse in humankind.
Yet, the global network society is our society, and the understanding of its logic
on the basis of the interaction between culture, organization, and technology in
the formation and development of social and technological networks is a key
field of research in the twenty-first century.

6. References
Brandtzæg, P. B., L¨uders, M., & Skjet e, J. H. . Too a y Fa e ook frie ds ?
Content sharing and sociability versus the need for privacy in social network sites.
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 26(11), 123-138.
Castells, M. (2013). The Impact of the Internet on Society: A Global Perspective. In Change:
19 Key Essays on How Internet Changing Our Lives (pp. 127-148). Spain: BBVA Open
Minded.
Dentzel, Z. (2013). How the Internet Has Changed Everyday Life. In Change: 19 Key Essays on
How Internet Changing Our Lives (pp. 242-253). Spain: BBVA Open Minded.
Dominick, J. R. (2013). The Dynamics of Mass Communication (12th ed.). New York, United
States of America: McGraw Hill.
Kemp, S. (2015, January 21). Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015. Retrieved April 6,
2015, from We Are Socal: http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social-
mobile-worldwide-2015/
Martin, E. J. (2015, February 23). The State of Social Media 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2015,
from EContent Magazine:
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/Editorial/Feature/The-State-of-Social-
Media-2015-101713.htm
Rainie, L., & Wellman, B. (2012). Networked: The New Social Operating System. United
States : MIT Press.
Turkle, S. (2013). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each
other. New York: First Trade Paper Edition.
Wang, H., & Wellman, B. (2010). Social connectivity in America: Change in adult friendship
network size from 2002 to 2007. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(8), 1148–1169.
Wellman, B. (2001, June 2). Physical Place and Cyberplace: The Rise of Personalized
Networking. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 25, 227-252.
Retrieved April 1, 2015, from
http://www.itu.dk/people/khhp/speciale/videnskabelige%20artikler/Wellman_2001
%20-%20%20personalized%20networking.pdf
Willmott, M., & Flatters, P. (2010). Trajectory Partnership. The Information Dividend: Why IT
Makes You “Happier." . Swindon: British Informatics Society Limited. Retrieved from
http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/info-dividend-full-report.pdf

7. Essay on:
Social Implication of the Internet and Social Media
Prepared for:
Prof. Dr. Mohd Yahya bin Mohamed Ariffin
MEDIA AND SOCIETY
ACM 2043
Prepared By:
HASNIAR ROFIQ AUNUR
1132394