Networked ─ The New Social Operating System

Daily life is connected life, its rhythms driven by endless email pings andresponses, the chimes and beeps of continually arriving text messages, tweets and retweets, Facebookupdates, pictures and videos to post and discuss. Our perpetual connectedness gives us endlessopportunities to be part of the give-and-take of networking.

Some worry that thisnew environment makes us isolated and lonely. But in Networked, Lee Rainie andBarry Wellman show how the large, loosely knit social circles of networked individuals expandopportunities for learning, problem solving, decision making, and personal interaction. The newsocial operating system of "networked individualism" liberates us from the restrictions oftightly knit groups; it also requires us to develop networking skills and strategies, work onmaintaining ties, and balance multiple overlapping networks. Rainie and Wellman outline the"triple revolution" that has brought on this transformation: the rise of socialnetworking, the capacity of the Internet to empower individuals, and the always-on connectivity ofmobile devices. Drawing on extensive evidence, they examine how the move to networked individualismhas expanded personal relationships beyond households and neighborhoods; transformed work into lesshierarchical, more team-driven enterprises; encouraged individuals to create and share content; andchanged the way people obtain information. Rainie and Wellman guide us through the challenges andopportunities of living in the evolving world of networked individuals.

Lee Rainie is Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and former managing editor of U.S. News and World Report. Barry Wellman is the S. D. Clark Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, where he directs NetLab.