Online and offline networks

There are four ways in which online networks differ from offline networks.

• Scale: It is possible to interact with a huge number of other individuals online.
• Communality: Online networks facilitate large-scale cooperation.
• Specificity: It is very easy to find a specific kind of person very quickly, such as online communities with particular interests and tastes.
• Virtuality: People can pretend to be someone they are not on the internet, for instance, a man can have a female avatar or a woman a male avatar.