Social Life Here: On-Line Social Networks as a Means of Empowerment

This book explores how Internet use empowers users and the range of economic and social implications of these impacts. This is the first systematic study of how the Internet and online social networks reconfigure the life choices and opportunity sets Chinese people of different age groups face, and ways in which internet users’ life online and offline are intertwined with each other. The new ways of obtaining and making use of information and of interacting with others made possible by new forms of technology and their applications have profound and lasting effects on not only individuals but also social groups, and the entire population. The book also discusses the complex and dynamic relationship between tools and the people who use them.

Di Zhu, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China, and Secretary General of the Chinese Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Sociology of Consumption. Her interests include the sociology of consumption, sustainable consumption, social stratification and research methods, and youth consumer culture.

Yijin He, Ph.D., is Lecturer, Beijing University of Technology, China. He does research in sociological theories, methodology, social networks and youth culture.

Feng Tian is Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China. Tian’s research focuses on population sociology, youth studies, and social network.