Communication Technology and Sociability: Between Local Ties and “Global Ghetto”?

In these days of the Internet and globalization (Katz & Rice, forthcoming), there is a persistent misunderstanding about the spatial factors governing personal communication. Because a modern individual has access to tools, which are both mobile (e.g., cellular telephones) and global in their scope (e.g., the Internet), it is believed that s/he can establish social contacts anywhere and at any time, and can draw on the resources of social interaction in territories regardless of how near or far these are.