The Social Net: Understanding our online behavior

In the past two decades, the Internet has come to dominate every aspect of everyday life. This has been a huge change for many of us, and, for the younger generation - born into this situation - there has been no other way of living. How does this new way of life affect our health and happiness, our well-being? How does it affect our relationships, our friendships? Has the definition of friendship changed now that we have hundreds of friends on Facebook? Why is it that some people find it so hard to talk to people in their daily lives but find it so easy on the Internet? People spend so much time on the Internet - so what do we actually do on there? Why are some people so aggressive and others exceptionally helpful? Are these behaviors that we see from the same people offline? How do we take decisions online and which groups would we rather belong to online where nobody knows us, rather than revealing our true identity to the outside world? The new edition of ‘The Social Net’ provides a comprehensive understanding of the social aspects of the Internet. It contains chapters on topics such as identity manipulation, online romantic relationships, online decision making, the internet and aggression, and online prejudice and discrimination. The book provides the reader with an understanding of both the negative and positive influences of the net and is an exceptionally useful guide for for how to use the net to improve wellbeing. Today, when there is so much negative publicity surrounding the Internet - despite our reliance on it - this book provides a much needed balanced understanding of the Net and its influence.