For Van Dijk networks have become the nervous system of society, whereas Castells links the concept of the network society to capitalist transformation, Van Dijk sees it as the logical result of the increasing widening and thickening of networks in nature and society.
Vedno bolj ta omrežja povezujejo vse enote ali dele te forme (posameznike, skupine in organizacije)« (Van Dijk 2006: 20).