Virtual Society and Renewing Approaches to Sociological Research: Towards Building a Model to Study Digital Interactions

Abstract

This paper addresses the need to renew sociological research methods in light of the transformations that social morphology has defined as the emergence of a virtual society. Technology, viewed as a network, has changed the structure of social forms and perceptions of the concept of living in the world. The question is whether the nature of the methods that have long been used to study them also changed. If they have already evolved, where can this innovation be found? This paper concludes that the renewal of sociological research approaches should not be an end in itself but rather a service of sociological theory. This should create an integrative relationship between both existent social research methods and virtual and digital approaches.