A DECADE IN INTERNET TIME

Abstract

This introductory article provides a critical assessment of the last decade of social research on the Internet and identifies directions for research over the next. Ten years is only a moment in the span of social research, but aeons in Internet time. Has social research across the disciplines been up to the challenges? Over more than 40 years, the unfolding development of the Internet and related information and communication technologies has been one of the most dynamic areas of technological and social innovation worldwide. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, its development was even more dramatic. While innovations in such areas as search, social media, big data, and the commercialization of the Internet became prominent only over the last decade, they are already taken for granted by most Internet users. It is becoming increasingly apparent to us that this interdisciplinary field must broaden even further to better connect with fields beyond the social sciences and information, communication, media and cultural studies to include stronger collaborative ties to law, ethics, and the sciences, engineering, and computer sciences, but also across the arts and humanities. This will be an almost certain requirement for interdisciplinary research over the coming decade with technology and society moving at Internet time.

Keywords:

• social media
• research methodology
• communication studies
• computer-mediated-communication
• ICTs