## Social has a shape
Howard Rheingold, in his imitable style, covers a lot of important areas that impact our online space and daily live, in these final two chapters. Networks—like communities in the old-fashioned sense—have structures which influence both people and their online behavior. Think of Facebook or Twitter and how their similarities and differences identify them. Modern social networks maintained through voice and human connection, place them beside the roots of civilization. Our technologies today expand that reach so one’s voice can be heard, or more directly, read and responded to globally. Online networks that support social networks, which is most of them today, share unique characteristics of both people and network interaction.

A major concern for parents is online individualism, which begins with the portability of cell phones and the loss of contact with our children's callers. In the early days of cellphones, we often asked where callers were; the novelty of being somewhere other than home was a new feature. It's an exciting time, but it also ends knowing who's calling our kids, and that sense of control. Now we have to accept a world where our kids have internet devices in their hands, tweeting, emailing and Facebooking whenever and wherever they choose.

Social capital is well described in Rheingold's recollections of Philcat and the friendships that developed from their online community. True social capital is built through their friendships that naturally develop online. Reciprocity is also an essential element of online communities, networking and collaboration, as are trust and cooperation. "Unlike financial capital, trust grows when you use it, and depletes if you don't," Rheingold noted. Connecting, bridging and linking are all different but necessary aspects of connecting the web and people with different talents from different communities.