Social Consequences of Internet Use: Access, Involvement, and Interaction

by James E. Katz and Ronald E. Rice

Drawing on nationally representative telephone surveys conducted from 1995 to 2000, James Katz and Ronald Rice offer a rich and nuanced picture of Internet use in America. Using quantitative data, as... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262112698
• ISBN13: 9780262112697
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 484 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An eye-opener?

Comments on this book are that the figures are visualizing whatever the author's wish. While this book breaks the ice, it is for the scholars, academics to update / modify this vision. Overall, this book has serious work and content is highly useful for those who wish to see that even in the post-dotcom world, Internet is a useful (albeit communicable disease).

Exhausting yet Informative

As the title suggests, Katz and Rice's Social Consequences of Internet Use examines the social ramifications resulting from the profusion of internet usage in the past decade. The authors delineate "three central social issues of the internet: access, civic and community involvement, and social interaction and expression" (4). Within these three categories, the authors pose an assortment of novel and intriguing questions such as: Why would an internet user "dropout", that is, willingly give up his access; how does the internet affect politics, more especially elections; is social interaction via the internet even comparable to face-to-face interaction; and does the internet allow for more diversity of opinions or does it conversely perpetuate the status quo, as many critics argue?Through an assortment of surveys and case studies (home pages), and also data from both the Pew study and the American Life Project, Katz and Rice provide a thorough basis for their arguments. With much of the text being graphs, charts, and tables, the reader is easily able to correlate the sometimes difficult text to the more tangible graphs and charts. The reciprocal is also helpful. However, a large portion of the statistical data is based solely on correlations and therefore potentially not the most reliable data. But, the sheer abundance of the correlations should be sufficient enough to lend them validity.For the sake of the people who, after reading a review that is more or less a synopsis of an entire book forgo acquiring it, I will not divulge much. But I still feel obliged to at least provide an overview of their results.In short, Social Consequences of Internet Use theorizes that the internet is more of an extension of our already existing media. The authors claim that, contrary to both sides of the extremists (Utopian and Dystopian thinkers), the internet fits in better with a syntopian conceptualization, that is, neither Utopian nor Dystopian but a conglomeration of the two.Social Consequences of Internet Use is a thought-provoking book that tackles many social issues that have not had much attention in past research. If this field interests you, then this book is a must-have. However, due to the exhaustive and at times laborious reading, I would not recommend this book to dabblers or people looking for a leisurely read.

skipping towards syntopia

"We have emphasized the positive aspects of the Internet to balance the intensely negative scholarly and journalistic criticisms of how the Internet is affecting U.S. society," concede Messers. Katz and Rice. It was wise of them to tip their hand like this at the end of the book, after they buttress their syntopic thesis of the Internet's potential and current uses with study after study about the long-emergent American digital culture in relation to politics, identity, civic involvement, and social networks. Studies revealing positive and negative trends are both treated with equal weight, and although there is a preponderance of the former, by the time I was finished reading, I was convinced the reason for that was because there's simply more evidence of the Internet-as-boon. Those who didn't take Intro to Stats will need to get some help before tackling the many tables head-on, although the authors do an excellent job of summarizing and synthesizing the studies' findings. Maybe I'm still not rushing out to join Syntopia, but I certainly appreciated the book's depiction of those who are, and its arguments for why they are.

A positive spin for Internet use

What happens as more Americans become connected to the Internet and begin to spend an increasing amount of time on the Net? What kind of experience do people encounter on the Net? These are just a few of topics discussed in Katz's and Rice's book Social Consequences of Internet Use. In their book they look at the impact of the Internet on American society in three areas: access to internet technology; civic and community involvement, and social interaction and expression through the Internet. They draw a large part of their data from a series of multiyear national random telephone surveys that looked at the social aspects of Americans' Internet behavior. The survey was first conducted in 1995 and since then has been performed in 1996, 1997, and 2000. They claim their survey was the first to use a national random telephone survey to look at the social consequences of the Internet. Together with their own survey data, the authors also use case studies, reports and other national data surveys, including the Pew Internet and American Life Project to support their assertions. Their research and book however does not cover current Internet related issues like e-commerce and privacy of personal information on the Net.The authors maintain their motivation in writing the book "is to respond to arguments that the Internet is harmful or that it is a revolutionary liberating force." They conclude that the Internet is neither all bad "dystopian view" nor all good "utopian view" but instead the Internet is syntopia, which is a mix of both the dystopian and utopian view of the Internet. To them the Internet will not cause people to stay inside and only communicate with other through the Internet and cause society to fall in disrepair, nor will the Internet cause society break the shackles of repression and cause drastic increases in democratization. Rice and Katz conclude several points on consequences of Internet use: the internet does not reduce social capital but instead fosters it, it is personal self-interest that draws people to the Internet, which can bring about community, the Internet does not reduce overall communication, and the Internet has not precipitated a political or social revolution. Social Consequences of Internet Use definitely portrays the positives aspects of the Internet. They show how society has been made better by the Internet and only briefly discuss the negative consequences of Internet use. At the end of the book they justify this omission by saying they lean more to the utopian view because there is such a widely held belief that Internet is a detriment instead of a benefit to society. This does not however excuse some of their representation of positive correlation of Internet use as causation. Overall, this is an informative and extensive look at what happens to people when they go on the Internet even though it is slightly biased toward the positive side of Internet use. I recommend this book to anyone who ha