Connection or Disconnection? Two Generations in Sweden Discuss Online Sociality
Year: 2011
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: How does online social interaction influence everyday life? As the Internet becomes further embedded in day-to-day routines, socialising online is increasingly popular.1 The Internet, among other things, is used to keep in touch, meet new friends, flirt and find solace in social groups. A current example of the “sociable” aspect of the medium is the intense interest in social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, which, for young people, have become crucial sites for managing peer networks. With these and other forms of online sociality becoming central to contemporary lifestyles, we are seeing a transformation of the way many people socialise and relate to one another. Following the rise of digital and mobile communication technologies, there is an expansive body of academic work on the social use of the Internet, with scholarly perspectives pending between utopian and dystopian views of its consequences. However, much of the empirical research has been aimed at specific sites for, or forms of, online social interaction, and less so on how this more generally is experienced on the user-level. Here, many wider questions concerning social relationships, everyday social practices and their relation to identity formations and understandings of cultural and social belonging are still in need of further enquiry. This article attempts to shed light on how ordinary people in Sweden experience online sociality in their everyday life. It draws on a qualitative study involving 16 group interviews with two generations of Swedish inhabitants living in Stockholm, in their late teens (about 17 years old) and in their forties and
Author: Sofia Johansson
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W324835338