Are We To Be Forever Trapped Between the Two? The Internet, Modernity, and Postmodernity in the Early 21st Century

Abstract

Social theory has traditionally argued that the modern and the postmodern are chronologically ordered (that is, the postmodern comes after the modern) and mutually exclusive. I find, however, that contemporary American society is full of elements of both the modern/industrial and the postmodern/postindustrial. The Internet serves as an example of one social site in which these two concepts are in constant contact and often in tension. Based on an examination of the relationship between the modern/ industrial and the postmodern/postindustrial on the Internet, we can begin to determine whether or not the concepts of modern and postmodern accurately describe 21st century society.