Part Three: How to Live and Love Offline, Too

Today, because of the ease of communicating with others through technology, people are spending an increasing amount of time online and a decreasing about of time focusing on the real world.  Displacement theory is the idea that time spent with the web displaces other activities, like spending time with family and friends (Watkins, 2009).  Nev concludes his book by giving advice on how to fix this problem.  He advises to be aware of how often you are plugged in, take in the real world through your own eyes, not the lens of a camera on a phone (Schulman, 2014). 

The idea of network individualization, a term coined by Jan A.G.M. van Dijk, discusses that the individual is becoming the most important node in the network society and not a particular place, group or organization.  It means that individuals will spend more time alone accompanied by technology, transport and communication means, and that they will spend more time being online (van Dijk, 2006).  This idea exemplifies what we see happening in todays society.  People walk around with their phone in hand or attached at the hip.  A person could not go the day without their phone or digital communication device.  As the use of the Internet increases, meeting new people online becomes more normal.  With this new normality, of course, comes the possibility of meeting someone with a false online identity.  Catfish even use the idea of individualization in order to create their fake persona into a person who a specific individual will like.  

S. Craig Watkins, "The very well connected: Friending, bonding, and community in the digital age," The Young and the Digital (2009).  

Jan A.G.M. van Dijk,"Social structure" in The Network Society(2006).