Internet society; the internet in everyday life

Reference & Research Book News, Nov, 2005

Internet society; the internet in everyday life.

Bakardjieva, Maria.

Sage Publications

2005

220 pages

$69.95

Hardcover

HM851

Weary of the nerd-heavy mythology of the transformative power of the Net in academia and knowledge work, Bakardjieva (communication and culture, U. of Calgary) decided to carry out an ethnography of everyday Internet use. She wanted to approach the question of the Net's implications for society from the bottom up, starting with the daily experiences of ordinary Canadians--people who didn't earn their livelihoods on or around computer networks and therefore didn't have to embrace the new technology. She narrates the stories of how these "ordinary users" came to have an Internet connection in their home and how its use took shape in a study in which her own mixed feelings about the technology's pervasiveness is a central character.

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