ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how modern networking involves complex combinations of face-to-face and face-to-interface interaction, at-near and at-a-distance. It builds upon the assumption that social networks only work if they are performed regularly in and through texting, phone calls, emails, blogs, home pages and so on. The chapter explores how distanciated network members are forced to deal with physical distances that separate them. Social networks are intricately networked with extensive material networks. Castells argues that contemporary societies are network societies. This is a society made up of networks powered by micro-electronics-based information and communication technologies. Network capital is a relational possession that depends on other people's network capital. For instance, mobile phones and email accounts are of little worth if one's ties lack or refuse these possessions. Western households are increasingly networked. Families are plugged into an ever-expanding array of communications that connect family members to one another and to the outside world.
