The Immanent Internet Redux

Bernie Hogan and Barry Wellman

A revised and updated version of "The Immanent Internet" Barry Wellman and Bernie Hogan (2004) in Netting Citizens, edited by Johnston McKay. St. Andrews, Scotland: University of St. Andrews Press.

Digital Religion, Social Media and Culture: Perspectives, Practices and Futures
Edited by Pauline Hope Cheong, Peter Fischer-Nielsen, Stefan Gelfgren and Charles Ess. Bern, Switz: Peter Lang, 2012, pp. 43-62.

ABSTRACT

Interaction on the Internet has never been completely divorced from offline interaction. Nevertheless, myths of a transcendent Internet emerged, and persist to this day. We review these myths, and the perennial moral panics that they engender. We do not deny the Internet’s capacity to link people across time, space and social location. However, we assert that technological trends on the Internet do not move it away from offline life, or more realistically stated, everyday life. Instead, the trend is towards increased involvement of the Internet in mundane affairs. In the seven years since the publication of our original “The Immanent Internet” article, this trend has intensified with no sign of abating. The broad diffusion of social network sites with real identities, political and charitable mobilization online, and location-based services, alongside the increasing sophistication of search technologies serve only to reinforce and strengthen this claim. Throughout this article we indicate how spiritual metaphors have resonated with the myth of a transcendent Internet. The immanent internet provides a technological means for social connection, including both broad interfaith communication and narrowly focused ideological echo-chambers.