Small World Theory Paper

Living in a small world negatively influenced information seeking for everyday life purpose. A small world is a world where language and customs bind its participants to one worldview. Resources (both intellectual and material) are known and easily accessible. It is a world in which there is a collective awareness about who is important and who is not; which ideas are relevant and which are trivial; whom to trust and whom to be avoided (Chatman, 1999). Chatman built Theory of Life in the Round after investigating poor women (1986), low-skilled workers (1987), older women (1991), and woman prisoners (1999). The theory, also called as the small world theory (Huotari & Chatman, 2001), argued that life in the round will have a negative effect …show more content…
These were exercised when fear emerged and trust were lacking. Fear of losing jobs, being seen as less capable or normal, and lacking trust in information sources were examples of situations that prompted insiders to impoverish their information world. The theory is germane to reflect power relations between insiders and outsiders on viewing their information competence and relevance. Time and situation were argued as key factors to judge information relevance at an individual …show more content…
In the context of information technology, the theory appeared in the works of Jaeger and Thompson (2004) and Selwyn (2003; 2006). These studies explained why there are people who do not want to use information technologies to ease their everyday life. The work of Jaeger and Thompson, however, sounds more promoting information technology usage rather than provides explaining behavior at the individual level. Lingel and Boyd (2013) studied information sharing of people with Extreme Body Modification (EBM). One of the findings suggested that information poverty should be seen as a construct to explain a facet in human information behavior. A person could be informationally poor at one aspect, but might not at the others. The investigated groups showed that they did not shared specific information about their world to outsides but they shared less specific one. This action served for self-protection. Discussion on degree of sharing as Chatman discussed in the world of retired women may improve this finding. Research on homeless situated in three different states (Hersberger, 2003) showed that insufficient economic resources did not necessary go in hand with information poverty. Explanation for this was social capital and interpersonal networks that served as relevant information sources. The study argued that propositions of Information Poverty Theory were supported, but the author did not