Internet Galaxy by Manuel Castells Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Internet Galaxy by Manuel Castells - Coursework Example The Internet Galaxy by Manuel Castells provides a framework for understanding how the network society affects both oppresses and liberates individuals and global populations. The text makes suggestions regarding the impact of the internet and other digital communications media on society but falls short in providing adequate solutions that can be implemented on an individual or regional level to improve the success of society in the digital age. Digital communications have created what Castell terms a â€Å"network society†. Digital communications are libratory in that they allow the free and fair exchange of information with virtually no restrictions, a process describe in the text as â€Å"reinventing society† (Castell, 2001, p.61). Just as previous communications advances such as language and printed text, the widespread adoption of the internet as a means of communication has caused a social stratification between individuals of different ages, ethnicities, economic background, and nationality based on their proficiency and access to the internet, which is considered to be the fundamental element of the contemporary network society. Communication can be described as a human’s ability to express symbolic ideas as representations, which may be written, oral, and even tactile. Humans differ from most other animals in that they can create what is known in psychological terms as â€Å"decoupled representations†, or representations that are not bound specifically to a stimulus (Pleyer, 2010). While most animals respond with a distinct reaction only to a certain stimulus, humans can express such reactions even when that stimulus is not present. The written word, and subsequently printed text allowed representations to further be decoupled from their original stimulus, allowing ideas to exist independently of their cause and source.