The first chapter of Ben Agger’s The Virtual Self: A Contemporary Sociology acts as an overview of the book and as an introduction to some of the main ideas that Agger will discuss. The title of the first chapter is “Everyday life in Our Wired World” and Agger argues that the new level of interconnectivity that people experience everyday, primarily through the Internet, is forcing us to adjust our view of society. He begins by talking about the virtual self, which he describes as “the person connected to the world and to others through electronic means such as the Internet, television, and cell phones” (1). Agger declares that he is going to try and push sociology beyond its borders to discuss self, society and culture in this new age. Agger believes that self is most important, and that sociology must deal with what he calls “the worldliness of selves – their ability to go anywhere/anytime, their saturation with popular culture, their penchant for travel, their tendency to change jobs, spouses, their bodies” (4). Agger points out that sociology is changing and this change is most concerned with self and social structure in this interconnected time.
Agger notes that while many things are still the same since he grew up in the sixties, such as careers, divorces, and watching television, there are glaring differences primarily around the pressure and constant businesses pushed on kids. Agger declares that he has “skepticism about the potential of new information technologies” (11). He points out that technology and affluence have not freed people from work; instead people have busier lives, larger debts and more pressure. He points out how the wired world is “compressing time and leaving people scattered and restless” (19). While Agger outlines some beneficial things that technology can do, such as spreading education or recreating a public sphere for people to be contribute to, he focuses more on the downsides it could cause. The main one that Agger details is the fact that the information superhighway could discipline people, effectively removing their free will. Agger discusses that idea that “to consume and conform have become ‘second nature,’ not exposed to clear thought and careful consideration but operating at an unconscious level” (14). Agger discusses that people need to develop practical reason, allowing them to accomplish things even in the face of uncertainty, as a key to living in the wired world. Agger does not believe he has very good practical reason but also argues that the way.
Agger talks about the different themes of sociology by examining how people live their everyday lives to see how technology is affecting it. First, he looks at how structures like culture, family, government and the economy impact peoples’ lives. Agger argues, citing a phenomenologist named Husserl, that everyday life is a huge collection of experiences that are more powerful that theoretical experiences. He states that people do not focus on the familiar thing is our lives but instead on the new experiences. This is known as the natural attitude. According to Agger, “philosophy needs to perceive things from the vantage of the natural attitude, thus learning from people’s ordinary experiences of the world” (27). Agger discusses the different types of government that control us and that he feels it is simply the impermanence of capitalism. He argues that it has only survived this long because “it is preferable, more practical system and because socialism has proven to be a dismal failure” (24). Agger discusses the different views of Marx and Weber on what was the main cause(s) for how a person’s life would be. Agger argues that Weber’s three dimensional model, containing class, status and party, allowed him to go deeper into how things like salary, prestige and political affiliation could affect people’s lives then Marx’s unidimensional model, which only centered around class.
Agger wraps up his first chapter discussing what will come in later chapters in his book, namely some new models of sociology that the current study could evolve towards. Agger also discusses why other models like positivism, which he describes as the use of the scientific method to discover truths in sociology may not be the direction to go. He points out that, overall, the Internet and all new connectivity technology is simultaneously making life harder and easier at the same time. Agger argues that we have “access to more information and stimulation than ever before in history, and yet that most people are less well educated than their counterparts a generation ago” (39). He drives home the point that this ability of society to have more information and yet less use of it is the reason sociology is having to change and it is a direct outcome of this new age. Agger believes that this wired world people live in today is changing many, if not all, parts of society and therefore sociology has to change along with it.
Agger, Ben. “Everyday Life in Our Wired World” The Virtual Self: a Contemporary Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. 1-41. Print.
