Abstract
Social capital is partially predicated on the levels of trust obtaining between institutions and between members of society. As such it is a vital ingredient in the ‘glue’ which holds society together and which facilitates contractual economic activity. Recent technological advances, and the concomitant ascendancy of social networking, have radically reconfigured the environment in which social capital is generated, and the social sciences have some way to go fully to digest these new developments. This article surveys the meteoric rise of the ‘technium’ in the social imaginary and delineates some of the reservations current commentators have about the next ‘singularity’ to succeed the Internet. The discussion includes a brief account of the philosophy behind the objectification of the human. It also speculates about the consequences of paradigm shifts in modes of relating for the formation of social capital in the future.
Highlights
IntroductionThis article takes as its inspiration Jaron Lanier’s (2010) seminal polemic entitled You are not a gadget which, coming as it does from one of the foremost pioneers of ‘virtual reality’, warrants serious consideration
This article takes as its inspiration Jaron Lanier’s (2010) seminal polemic entitled You are not a gadget which, coming as it does from one of the foremost pioneers of ‘virtual reality’, warrants serious consideration.The essay provides a contextual elucidation of the notion of ‘social capital’ before proceeding to describe what is meant by the rise of ‘the technium’
Social isolation, which many scholars perceive as being one of the more insidious concomitants of social networking, is examined within the contexts of human beings being commodified as saleable datasets, and what many fear is a growing tendency to treat humans as mere things
Summary
This article takes as its inspiration Jaron Lanier’s (2010) seminal polemic entitled You are not a gadget which, coming as it does from one of the foremost pioneers of ‘virtual reality’, warrants serious consideration. It is contended that humankind is on the cusp of a new ‘singularity’ whereby social intercourse as we. Social capital in the era of social networking have experienced it hitherto will be revolutionized and reconfigured to accommodate the dictates of new technological advances. Lanier’s (2010) fears about ‘cybernetic totalism’ and ‘standardised presences’ are introduced within the ambit of social networking to illustrate just how far the technologically driven reinvention of modern society has advanced. The underlying question is the degree to which humankind and human society is being shaped by devices of its own making. Whatever the answer to this conundrum may be, and whatever the impacts of the new technium on social capital formation, the consequences for society are most certainly going to be both radical and profound
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