Social Science and the Social Impacts of Computer Technology

In: Social science quarterly, Volume 66, Issue 1, p. 3-21

Abstract

It is argued that the impacts of computer technology on society are an extraordinarily important area for rigorous social scientific research. However, there is currently only a modest amount of empirical research & a dearth of cumulative findings on this subject, & the conceptual & theoretical approaches informing the research are weak. After specifying the primary sources of the understandings about the social impacts of computing, a taxonomy of impacts & a conceptual framework that might guide social scientific research on this subject are suggested. Finally, eight broad generalizations that can be derived from the existing empirical research on the social impacts of computing are summarized. 1 Table, 1 Figure, 80 References. HA