The focus on this article is how the Internet is changing social relationships, and thus how technology changes our social relationships. For DiMaggio et al., the term ‘Internet’ denotes not only the hardware, that is the technological infrastructure, but also importantly how that infrastructure is manifest and used through the web. The thrust of this paper is to analyze where the current research on the ‘Internet’ stands and also to call for further research as they describe the Internet as being in a special place where research is necessary. Here they write that it is a “once in a lifetime opportunity” as the Internet medium is in … the early stages of a new mediums diffusion and institutionalization.”  (3).  DiMaggio at al. posits five areas of research for the Internet, which runs the gamut for the social implications for the Internet. These include, inequality or issues of access, economic consideration, political considerations, social and community affects, and cultural diversity. Interestingly, they use Lessig’s idea of how private interests begin to regulate the systems of the Internet and the flow of information as a cautionary example of why it is prescient to understand how the Internet is affecting our culture at this time. Although written in a dry manner, and the subject being almost worn-out even in 2001, the does reify the necessity of a scholarly approach to understanding of how the Internet functions.

Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, W. Russell Neuman, John P. Robinson. Social Implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 27 (2001) pp. 307-336