Internet

1. Internet

2. Some questions include: Does the Internet? •   Destroy in person contact-people so caught in th.e virtual world they lose contact with reality • Promote escapism-compartmentalized sights lose touch with big picture • Is it `apolitical’?

3. Internet Defined- • Defined-the internet is giant network of computers located all over the world that communicate with each other.

4. Riding the Highway From highway to web = • compartmentalization, • specialization, • differentiation.

5. Commercialization of the Technology1994 • Commercialization of the Internet involved not only the development of competitive, private network services-

6. Dawn of the Information age. • The 1980s involved the transition between the industrial and information age. • 1989-Tiannmen Square- • 1994-Year of capitalism and the internet

7. Early Vendors • Originally, commercial efforts mainly vendors providing the basic networking products, and service providers offering the connectivity and basic Internet services. • But the first Pizza was sold in 1994. Pizza Hut.

8. Timeline of The Internet • 1939 First Television • 1945-War ends-domestic production and consumerism begins • 1957-Sputnik • 1960-From military use to University • 1980-WWW • 1990’s and beyond –capitalism and globalization.

9. SPUNIK & ARPA • The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) 1957

10. J.C.R. Licklider`Father of the Internet’ • In 1950, Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University

11. Galactic Network" concept. • 1960 he envisioned a globally interconnected set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site.

12. In spirit, his concept was very much like the Internet of today – man and computer-symbiosis…

13. Man-Computer Symbiosis. • "A network of such [computers], connected to one another by wide-band communication lines" which provided "the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and [other] symbiotic functions. "—J.C.R. Licklider[1957

14. Internet ,Time and Fear • Space Race and the Cold War created fear • Fearled to innovation in the US • Telephonescould be broken • What happens if a missile attack occurs? • How does The President `push the button’ • How do we contact him on `The Red Phone?

15. Date of the First Connection • 1965working with Thomas Merrill, connected the TX-2 computer in Mass. to the Q-32 in California • Connection: low speed dial-up telephone line creating the first (however small) wide-area computer network ever built.

16. The transition toward an Internet1974 • TCP –a key in linking remote computers through a common `server’ • The term "Internet" was adopted in the TCP protocol ( Internet Transmission Control Program, December 1974).

17. Jan 1983 Internet Birthday • (This date is held by some to be technically that of the birth of the Internet.) • It was then followed by the opening of the network:

18. "The Internet" • "The Internet" came to mean a global and large network using TCP/IP.

19. Internet's technologies • As interest in wide spread networking grew and new applications for it arrived, the Internet's technologies spread throughout the rest of the world. • Easy to use any existing network infrastructure, to carry Internet traffic.

20. Internet • The Internet has now become almost a "commodity" service, and much of the latest attention has been on the use of this global information infrastructure for support of other commercial services.

21. Sociological TheoriesThe Great Change • For the sociologist, the internet raises a number questions: • Structural Functionalist-the quest for community…New vertical communities replaced horizontal…(see R.Warren)

22. THE GREAT CHANGE • The Community in America • by Roland L. Warren. • Introduces Two key concepts in understanding community and internet:

23. Internet Communities • Internet provides an ideal platform to: • Disperse information and news quickly, easily and cheaply (Content) • Interact and reach targeted audiences ( vertical community) • Buy and sell academic related products and services (Commerce) .

24. (Horizontal Community)ERODES • Belonging can come from a place, from a family, from an ethnic groups or community organization, • Loss of Traditional Community

25. …(Vertical Community Expands • Specialized interest groups or from a virtual community) • Ie. Teachers association, sports and rec. associations, specified interest association.

26. Functional Concerns: • a.    Cultural lag How technological change affects community-W.F Ogburn of the Chicago School.… • b.    Erosion of community Others (Wellman, 1988) any element ofindustrialization, urbanization and capitalism,

27. C. Erosion of primary relationships=people become disconnected, weakly supportive relationships superficial, secondary relationship replace primary group ties….

28. Sociological Concern II • D  Presentist Orientation….presentdriented ethos---an on-going fast-moving, conversation with people regardless of their location, schedule and other constraints. • ”

29. Statistics Canada • Statistics Canada reported that in 1998, about 36 per cent of Canadian households were connected (Dickinson and Ellison, 1999). • Private sector surveys put this figure over 50 per cent in 1999.

30. II. Symbolic Interactionist- • Symbolic Interactionist-interested in new forms of meaning, new symbols ie. @ sign, dot.com etc. • Symbols construct meaning • Symbol such as Logo affect consciousness • Ideas vs. Ideology

31. Interactionist: . Youth discourse and Meaning • ”

32. Symbolic Interactionist . Ideology replaces ideas…Logo culture • Ideology of the Internet- “get with the program” “join us geeks” “turn your back on the ugly world out there” “ we have the reality of your choosing” ????

33. III CONFLICT THEORY • THE INTERNET PERPETUATES CAPITALISTIC IDEOLOGY • COMMERISM IS GOD • COMMODITY FETISHISM PREVAILS>

34. IICAPITALISM and Commodification OBJECTIFICATION • i. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, kiddie porn, music, conversation, history, genealogy?

35. Internet & American Imperialism • Globalization has been called Americanism. • Standardization of culture under corporate control.   • See D. Korten, When Corporations Rule the World (1991)

36. Nation states • Nation states are undermined by multinational corporations and a standard way of doing things become prevailent throughout the world. • Globalizationhas been linked to the exploitation of third world countries by the first world.

37.  I.V  Post Modernism • b.     M. McLuhan-the global village…on the one hand, it refer to the world coming together

38. Formation of the Broad Community • The Internet is as much a collection of communities as a collection of technologies… • FRAGMENTED DISCOURSES…

39. Internet and Social Change • Is the glass half empty of half full? • The prophet Jeremiah, say that the more immediate reward in praising the future than denouncing it.

40. Continuity in change…. • a.      E. Litwak-modified extended family-cars, planes, and phones help maintain ties over long distances..…geography not as significant as emotional bonding….

41. Summary • Internet an illustration of a dramatic change in material culture leads to change in non-material culture…cultural lag

42. Summary • Internet changes community (SF) • Internet is ideological (Conflict) • Internet affect consciousness and construction of meaning..(SI)