ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses “Brave New World: Networked Life and Well-Being,” the affordance and obligations of a Permanently Online, Permanently Connected (POPC) environment and the resulting implications for different facets of health and the quality of life. It analyzes the most relevant manifestations, implications, and consequences of mobile online communication for individuals and for societies at large. The book introduces a conceptualization of important competencies that help today’s adolescents respond to the challenges of living in a POPC environment. Communication of the future—private and public, entertaining and informing, persuasive and educational—will be permanent communication. Reconstructing possible bidirectional connections between POPC as a common practice of many individuals and these macro trends is an ambitious intellectual challenge and offers exciting new chances of understanding and predicting global change.
