The Internet in Everyday Life
Barry Wellman and Caroline Haythornthwaite, eds.
Oxford: Blackwell. November 2002. 588 pages.
ISBN: 0-631-23508-6
Price: USD $27.95; Euros €20.36; CdnD $44.09; British Pounds £17.95

Excerpts from the Editors' Introduction, Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry Wellman: The Internet in Everyday Life is about the second age of the Internet as it descends from the firmament and becomes embedded in everyday life. The first age of the Internet was a bright light shining above everyday concerns. In the euphoria, many analysts lost their perspective. The rapid contraction of the dot.com economy has brought down to earth the once-euphoric belief in the infinite possibility of Internet life. It is not as if the Internet disappeared. Instead, the light that dazzled overhead has become embedded in everyday things. A reality check is now underway about where the Internet fits into the ways in which people behave offline as well as online. We are moving from a world of Internet wizards to a world of ordinary people routinely using the Internet as an embedded part of their lives. It has become clear that the Internet is a very important thing, but not a special thing. In fact, it is being used more - by more people, in more countries, in more ways. This book is a harbinger of a new way of thinking about the Internet: not as a special system but as routinely incorporated into everyday life.... The studies presented here begin the tasks of broadening our focus from the Internet to the social worlds in which it is embroiled. The research in this book focuses on the relationship between the Internet and interpersonal relationships. It speaks to issues about the social consequences of adding the Internet to our daily lives. It explores how the Internet affects social and communal behaviors. The studies address key questions about the impact of the Internet on friendships, civic involvement, and time spent with others. Who is online and who is coming online (and not coming)? How much time do they spend online? How does the Internet affect relationships within households, and with family, friends, voluntary organizations, schoolmates, and workmates? The research presented suggests that the Internet has accentuated a change towards a networked society: a turn toward living in networks rather than in groups. The personalization, portability, ubiquitous connectivity, and imminent wireless mobility of the Internet all facilitate networked individualism as the basis of community.

Excerpts from Manuel Castells' Preface: This book is precious. It provides us with reliable, scholarly research on the hows and whats of the Internet as it relates to people's lives. The Internet is rapidly becoming part of the fabric of our lives, not only in the advanced societies but in the core acitivites and dominant social groups in most of the world.... [These are] academic researchers setting the record straight, engaging into the exploration of a new society, our society, the network society.... [They describe] electronic networks that simultaneously coordinate decision-making and decentralize production and distribution throughout the planet.... [This is] a global movement enacted by and with the Internet.... The emerging pattern is one of self-directed networking, both in terms of social relationships and in terms of social projects. The Internet is not just a tool; it is an essential medium for the network society to unfold its logic.... It is by investigating along the lines suggested in this volume that we will be able to assess its contour and its implications. The network is the message, and the Internet is the messenger.

Excerpts from Howard Rheingold's Foreword: Social scientists have pulled ahead of anecdotal evidence and armchair theorizing to provide significant answers to some of society's most important questions about social behavior via online media.... Good information is now available, but it's still drowned out by the noise. The next step is getting that news out. The current volume provides useful answers. Most importantly, it frames the right kinds of questions about the ways in which the se of Internet-enabled media affect everyday lives. Each chapter in this volume should stimulate others to ask even more specific questions, as all good research should. Now that the authors of this volume ... have established a solid foundation of systematic observation and theory about the ways the Internet influences everyday life, perhaps we won't have to rely on data-free philosophizing to make policy decisions as citizens and societies.

From Brian D. Loader, Journal Editor, Information, Communication & Society: The editors are to be congratulated for pulling together a collection of excellent articles that will make a valuable contribution to empirically grounding discussions about the effects of the Internet on our everyday life experiences.