Self, community and language in the network society

Abstract

The article argues that the electronically mediated communication contributes to the construction of new, mediated forms of communities the functions of which to foster communities of interest, information spread, and equality of status all work to enhance social capital, despite their lack of direct physical orientation. The mediated, networked individuals treat these mediated communities as real. Therefore the appearance of these new forms of communities leads to the new conceptualization of the relation between self and community. The essence of community can be regarded as a kind of networked individualism in which the networked individuals can chose their own communities, rather than are fitted into them with others involuntarily. Thus the new, mediated form of community implies an individual-center existence and weaker social ties. The new technologies foster communication links outside the individuals’ immediate social surrounds. The aim of this article is to show that the medium of the mediatization and new conceptualization of community is a specific, pictorial language of electronically mediated communication.