The self-organization of the Internet and changing modes of thought

This paper explores the social-cognitive implications of Internet participation. Our central argument concerns the reciprocal relationship between the self-organization of the Internet and the cognitive and social development of individuals who participate in that system. We begin by providing a brief historical trajectory of the Net and discuss the self-organizing properties that explain its evolution. We go on to discuss how participating in this self-organizing system may give rise to changes in comtemporary modes of thought — changes on the order of those that occurred during the birth of modernism after the advent of the printed word. Five specific changes are suggested: (1) the shift from essentialist thinking towards a sense of perpectivism, (2) the development of contextualized critical thinking skills, (3) the emergence of a meta-cognitive representation of the self as a network of identities, (4) an increase in cognitive flexibility, and (5) the development of efficacy beliefs. All five modes of thought are shown to be fundamentally linked to the self-organizing nature of the Net and to correspond to the postmodern themes of perspectivism, multiplicity, and decentralization.