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Introduction
In this essay I will critically comment on the rise of network society based on the impact it has made on individuals and the key changes it has caused over the past years. I will look at the main online communication methods – such as Facebook – and analyse the changes it has made peoples social situation.
The term “network society” has been used for decades playing a significant role in our lives as well as the lives of every community in the world, whether we are talking about a small group of people or a huge organisation. One of the first people to introduce this term to us was, professor of sociology and communication science, Jan van Dijk. In 1991 he wrote a book“De Netwerkmaatschappij” (The Network Society) where he wrote about a dramatic acceleration in the use, demand, and need for telecommunications, data communication, and mass communication transmitted and integrated into networks. Since 1991 a lot of things have changed and evolved but the concept of network society has stayed the same. One of the other authors that have analysed and discussed the topic of network society was Manuel Castells, he wrote a three volume book titled “The Rise of Network Society” (1996). In his book he wrote: “The network society itself is, in fact, the social structure which is characteristic of what people had been calling for years the information society or post-industrial society. Both "post-industrial society" and "information society" are descriptive terms that do not provide the substance, that are not analytical enough. So it 's not a matter of changing words; it 's providing substance. And the definition, if you wish, in concrete terms of a network society is a society where the key social structures
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