ABSTRACT
This chapter shows a path for the research practitioner from the dualism of virtual community to characterising social interaction online through the relational ideas of mediated sociability. It demonstrates the relevance of investigating digital community through multimodal forms of social interaction that blurs the distinction between the online and offline worlds. Networked individualism is derived from the personalisation of communication devices and platforms; it is also about the customisation of self-image over the cultivation of group identity. Barry Wellman's discussion of networked individualism highlights that whilst personal community networks predated cyberspace, recent developments in information communication technologies (ICT) have afforded their emergence as the dominant form of social organisation. M. Foth and G. N. Hearn argue that Wellman's notion of networked individualism describes the ambivalent nature inherent in any given person's egocentric yet still well-connected social interactions. Wellman's networked individualism points to the permeability of group structures by strong and weak social ties through portfolios of sociability.
