2009: A Networked Society

“We are a networked society now”. Benkler makes this statement in the very last paragraph of his chapter. I think that this short sentence could not be more succinct and blatantly true of our society today. It’s with that notion that originally made me want to sign up for this class. Our lives have become all about networks, relationships, communities, and communication. It’s amazing to be a part of this new internet social networking phenomenon, and to be able to grow with it, adapting and making changes that will allow each one us to better utilize newly developed skills and knowledge for the future. No longer, as Benkler mentioned, do we need to follow the trend of being boxed into a particular geographical region or area. Sites, like the “YouthMap”, can allow people from all over the world to explore and communicate with one another in an increasingly direct and driven way. With these continual advances, we are becoming a more efficient society when it comes to relationships, both weak and strong. We are able to make weak connections from the first email, because we are now able to gain background information, understand a group/person’s work, etc… from the net. Moreover with this, as Benkler suggested, people are molding their connections in such ways that they are able to reorganize their own social networks in a way that fits them the best. I believe that this will naturally lead to increased communication with people, along with increased ties made and human interaction over the net. Benkler states that family and friend ties were certainly thickened, and not supplanted, by the advances on the net; I think this is the same that will occur for our project. With a network web already in place for people to look at and use, relationships will be increasingly more simple to form between complete strangers and organizations. They will all share common goals, interests, etc… which help aid an immediate establishment of a weak tie. Occurrences like this were not possible ten years ago, but will soon become the norm for our society.