Internet as the Individual’s Personal Social Insitution?

New forms of media have fully infiltrated our society. We carry little computers with us everywhere, we use technology to teach and entertain children, and we could even go as far as to say that new forms of Media are a new type of social institution. Many older forms of media are in competition for the dominate spots in people’s lives; few people read physical newspapers but many will go to an online news website. This is not to say that older forms of media are less important in modern life, as we see that people will still buy books and mail letters, but there is definitely an influx of newer forms of media into modern lifestyles. Throughout history types of media have been introduced and changed the ideas of time and space; oral societies could transport information quickly through space but the same information would not survive time, stone writings are difficult to transport through space but will survive periods of time, and finally the impact of literacy with the notion of printing on paper transformed both realms of time and space as information was able to move quickly and be kept semi-permanently. Currently with the advent of the newest forms of media such as the internet and then social networking, we see a greater movement into full singularity between time and space. Here we see that new types of media are beginning to transform the individual beyond traditional social institutions. The ability for new forms of media to transcend time and space fills a void in our constant and ever changing society that demands to be faster and newer. This is where we must note the importance of the internet and its new ability to change and affect the individual on two separate levels; a uniquely personal level and a uniquely social level. This ability to affect individuals similarly reflects the ideas of a social institution, but this would be a new type of social institution.