Blogging...a new public sphere?

With the emergence of many blogging programs like this one, many issues that were once left to the private lives of individuals have now become the public. We have recreated what information is deemed to be kept private and what is released publicly. "Citizens act as a public when they deal with matter of general interest without being subject to coercion; thus with the guarantee that they may assemble and unite freely, and express and publicize their options’ freely"- Habermas (2003). This theory of Habermas states that as a public, blogging has allowed us to communicate freely, free of control and pursasion over what is appropriate and what is not. As a new form of online communication, blogs have turned the private conversation into a public one. We are no longer afraid to hid concerns about our social institutions and provide valuable information for the rest of the population; no matter how controversial. There are blogging sites, such as Hackbloc.org, creating a community for hacktivists on the internet. A support system for those people around the globe that share the same view on digital activism. Without the introduction of the blog, i feel many issues which have been brought up recently would not exist. It is more dangerous that the citizen journalist has more say, or is society finally realizing all of the issue that they were too afraid to express?

What is next for online communication?

When we think of all the social networking sites that are available to us on a 24 hour basis; its beyond astounding. Over the course of the past few months, it has come to my attention how involved society is in this online public sphere. A community of individuals from all over the world can communicate when ever, from where ever, and how often they would like. With the continuing addition of technological advancements, it is becoming easer to distance ourselves from traditional face-to-face communication. From our now hand-held devices we can access our online social networks at the touch of a screen. What individuals used to keep private and away from the public eye, has now changed. People can discuss their emotions, attitudes, outlooks on millions of topics and communicate with others in the process. We have created an online sphere where once private issues can now become public. We can share information immediately and obtain it just as quickly. From the avid, myspacer, facebooker, or blogger, all of them are sharing the same withdrawn experience no matter what form is used. Where we obtain our daily news, updates and understandings about the world are simply a few seconds away. Throughout the last three months, I have begun to understand the importance of understanding and giving credibility to this new online era of communiation. What will be next, how will we evolove when the internet becomes so full of information that we will not have enough time to figure it out? It will be interesting to look back on the current state of citizen media and the public sphere in 20 years from now and see which path society chose.