The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces: Internet Use, Social Networks, and the Public Realm

Offlate changes to the structure of people's social networks, the mass media, and urban public spaces may represent a confluence of social trends that constrain exposure to diverse issues, ideas, and opinions in the public sphere. Technological change that influences how it maintains social networks, access information, and use public spaces may advance or hinder this existing trend. This study examines one such technological change: the impact of wireless Internet use (wi-fi) on urban public spaces, wi-fi users, and others who inhabit these spaces.