Living Networked in a Wired World

Abstract

Members of little-box societies deal only with fellow members of the few groups to which they belong: at home, in the neighborhood, at work, or in voluntary organizations. They belong to a discrete work group in a single organization; they live in a household in a neighborhood; they belong to a kinship group (one each for themselves and their spouse) and to discrete voluntary organizations: churches, bowling leagues, professional associations, school associations, and the like. All of these appear to be bodies with precise boundaries for inclusion (and therefore exclusion). Each has an internal organization that is often hierarchically structured: supervisors and employees, parents and children, pastors and churchgoers, the union executive and its members. In such a society, each interaction is in its place: one group at a time.