The Internet in Everyday Life is the first book to systematically investigate how being online fits into people's everyday lives. Opens up a new line of inquiry into the social effects of the Internet. Focuses on how the Internet fits into everyday lives, rather than considering it as an alternate world. Chapters are contributed by leading researchers in the area. Studies are based on empirical data. Talks about the reality of being online now, not hopes or fears about the future effects of the Internet.

The Internet in Everyday Life is the first book to systematically investigate how being online fits into people's everyday lives. Opens up a new line of inquiry into the social effects of the Internet. Focuses on how the Internet fits into everyday lives, rather than considering it as an alternate world. Chapters are contributed by leading researchers in the area. Studies are based on empirical data. Talks about the reality of being online now, not hopes or fears about the future effects of the Internet.

`A highly topical, interesting and lively analysis of ordinary internet use, based on both theoretically competent reflections and sound ethnographic material′ - Joost van Loon, Reader in Social Theory at Nottingham Trent University Internet Society investigates internet use and it′s implications for society through insights into the daily experiences of ordinary users. Drawing on an original study of non-professional, ′ordinary′ users at home, this book examines how people interpret, domesticate and creatively appropriate the Internet by integrating it into the projects and activities of their everyday lives. Maria Bakardjieva′s theoretical framework uniquely combines concepts from several schools of thought (social constructivism, critical theory, phenomenological sociology) to provide a conception of the user as an agent in the field of technological development and new media shaping. She: - examines the evolution of the Internet into a mass medium - interrogates what users make of this new communication medium - evaluates the social and cultural role of the Internet by looking at the immediate level of users′ engagement with it - exposes the dual life of technology as invader and captive; colonizer and colonized This book will appeal to academics and researchers in social studies of technology, communication and media studies, cultural studies, philosophy of technology and ethnography.

This book explores the technical, political economic and sociocultural implications of technological change. Using an international political economy approach, the author focuses on how the Internet is used by ethnic minorities to communicate.

The internet has fundamentally transformed society in the past 25 years, yet existing theories of mass or interpersonal communication do not work well in understanding a digital world. Nor has this understanding been helped by disciplinary specialization and a continual focus on the latest innovations. Ralph Schroeder takes a longer-term view, synthesizing perspectives and findings from various social science disciplines in four countries: the United States, Sweden, India and China. His comparison highlights, among other observations, that smartphones are in many respects more important than PC-based internet uses. Social Theory after the Internet focuses on everyday uses and effects of the internet, including information seeking and big data, and explains how the internet has gone beyond traditional media in, for example, enabling Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to come to power. Schroeder puts forward a sophisticated theory of the role of the internet, and how both technological and social forces shape its significance. He provides a sweeping and penetrating study, theoretically ambitious and at the same time always empirically grounded.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of digital media and society, the internet and politics, and the social implications of big data.

The Internet has so entirely transformed virtually all aspects of everyday life that it seems almost impossible to assess its impact. Here, 19 esteemed scholars from around the world tackle the topic from different angles. Manuel Castells, David Gelernter, Juan Ignacio Vázquez, Evgeni Morozov, Mikko Hyppönen, Yochai Benkler, Federico Casalegno, David Crystal, Lucien Engelen, Patrik Wikström, Peter Hirshberg, Paul DiMaggio and Edward Castronova address such matters as the "Internet of things"; the sociology of the Internet; cybercrime and Internet security; the future of work; the Internet and urban-rural sustainability; the "Worldstream and the Cybersphere"; gaming and society; the Internet's influence on languages and new economic systems; the massive changes wrought by the net in the music industry; and other aspects of its many cultural, social and political ramifications.