Intermission
Loading...
Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture
Abstract
We are no longer only influenced by social exchange that occurs in close proximity. Our character can now be defined by everything that occurs around us. The television, Internet and cell phone are only a few mediums that give people the ability to communicate and exchange information at the press of a button. Even the typical family circle is no match for the powerful interdependencies that unite all people yet in some moments keeps them divided. Methods of social exchange have changed dramatically over the last century allowing people to interact at any proximity they choose making them part of a larger system that relies heavily on being connected to various communication technologies (CT). How we communicate, now more than ever, is an integral part of the way in which we shape our world. With so many mediums of communication and the exponential growth of social exchange it is difficult to understand the implications of our actions in regards to CT. One such scenario entails the person who going about his or her day is in constant connection through an electronic device which supplies him or her the freedom to be at any given place at one moment and another the next second. It must be noted that even though this person has that freedom, he or she can only connect to someone who possesses a similar medium. What about the individual who has no medium with which to communicate at a similar rate? As we continue to "efficiently" interact within a digital world we create strong social ties to people that fit within our own unique demographic. We attach ourselves to what we know creating weak social ties to people that fit within a different user group. Weak social ties (links) form a network of information carrying connections between different demographics. These connections are better able to carry novel technology information that we don't have access to within strong social networks that tend to move in the same circles. By increasing the potential for weak social connections to form one can begin to close the social gap which has left people divided in a digital world.