Consequences of a Networked Society

Hello, Hello.

The question I am going to address today is:

Are the consequences of a networked society positive or negative?

In Manuel Castells' article, "Why Networks Matter," he outlines various positive consequences to a networked society. Some of the positives include:

• networks are the organizing form of social life.
• networked societies expand on a global scale and know no boundaries, thus societies can become interconnected throughout the world.
• networked organizations outcompete all other forms of organizations.
• the networking of political institutions answers the call for global governance.
• networked societies answer the need for sharing and co-experiencing.
  
• networked societies allows for social practices (both global and local) to communicate in the media space.

Those are some positives outlined in Manuel Castells' article, which I do agree with, thus a networked society does have positive consequences...however, I also do agree that a networked society does have negative consequences as well.

In my opinion, some negative consequences of a networked society may be:

• there may be online bullying from teens to other teens.
• there may be images easily accessible by minors; images that they should not be seeing at a young age.
• articles provided for free via the Internet does not allow authors to take full profit for their work, inevitably losing out on money.
• in a networked society, people may create virtual identities of themselves and these virtual selves may have positive or negative affects. Also, individuals may start to believe these virtual selves are themselves "real."
• a networked society may increase the number of multiple personality disorders.
  
• a networked society may isolate some individuals who begin to design some sort of 'second life' and these individuals inevitably forget about their real life.
  

Although I've outlined various negatives of a networked society, there are positives that weren't outlined in Manuel Castells article. One of the major positive consequences of a networked society is that through the creation of a virtual self, individuals may be able to use this virtual self as a form of healing, experimentation and testing. Being able to escape reality, and escape the physical world may be a way of keeping certain people sane. With the stress that we, individuals, face on a day to day basis, sometimes the feeling of stepping outside of your own body may be the best feeling in the world. Some individuals claim to not feel like themselves when they are experimenting with their virtual indentities, but state that they like that they don't feel like themselves......so who am I to judge a networked society?

signed,

g.i.a.c.w.