Social Network Structures and the Internet: Collective Dynamics i ...

In addition, the idea of mass media has not disappeared. If anything, the Internet has come to be viewed as a cross between earlier understandings of the issues involved in interpersonal and mass communication.

The idea of “interactivity” on a one-to-one basis came about early in the widespread adoption of the Internet and is still prominent today. However, as important as this concept may be, it has been studied in the past 15 or so years primarily from the social-psychological perspective with an implicit assumption of individuals socially isolated from one another. Concepts such as “perceived interactivity” have been developed and studied from the aspect of the single individual interacting with a medium and/or a message. Often, the study of interactivity has revolved around understanding the various psychological effects of Web sites’ interactivity on an individual, for example.

While the study of individual differences with respect to interactivity has been helpful, inherent in this concept is the idea of, at minimum, two-way communication between sender and receiver. As noted by Rheingold (1993) and others early on in the development of the Internet, in addition to facilitating two-way communication, the Internet creates an environment where many individuals who are socially and geographically dispersed can voluntarily interact and collaborate with one another, which is exemplified by numerous online forums and virtual communities. That is to say, to the current time in academic study of this new medium, there has been little study of the ideas from the sociological perspective regarding the operation of human networks. Since the Internet is fundamentally a network, it seems clear that studying it must also involve the examination of social interaction with respect to this medium if a clear picture is to evolve about the full impact on individuals as well as on society at large.