Of Ants and Men—the Role of Complexity in Social Change

The complexity of modern society leads to many unplanned social trends. Here we identify the four most common sources processes of unintended trends: brittleness of “divide and rule” strategies, failure of system models, changes in network connectivity and positive feedback. To illustrate the role these processes have played we examine three case studies involving the social side effects of new technologies: (1) the impact of labour-saving products on Australian family life during the late twentieth century; (2) the impact of advances in ICT on entertainment and social isolation; and (3) the impact of new Web based communities on patterns of social interaction.