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.

Our 'Second Life'

Firefighter training in Second Life
Uploaded by MASAGroup

After hearing about Second Life for the first time this week I looked into this internet pseudo community, to truly gain a sense of what it entailed. I understood it as an online 'life' outside of the reality in our everyday lives. We can be who we want to be in regards to looks, lifestyle, career, etc. When I came acorss this video of Second Life, where people with accounts can be trained as firefighters, it really made me think. Do we find our satisfaction in life through the public sphere and abilities of the internet? Maybe when you were younger you always wanted to be a firefighter but your parents forced you into being a business student. Second Life not only gives you the ability to become a firefighter but see what training and hardwork it takes to be one. This notion of being able to create a second path for your life, is so beyond what I think anyone would have ever thought to achieve out of the internet. When we participate in such online programs as Second Life, we may be recreating a life that we hoped was ours. This social network is something that elminates all cultural boundaries of real life, and allows for the impossible to longer be impossible. We can eliminate the notion of boundaries that is so readily enforced in everyday life. Is this a positive use of the internet? Are there negative impacts to creating such an unrealistic life for oneself?

Free Information: Would it ruin societal structure?

The internet is supposed to be a place where individuals can share information and comment on eachothers thoughts and ideas. If only we had access to the information that companies and the government kept from us. Would we live a more concision, yet worries life, knowing that things we thought were once uncontrolled were not. Would we feel lost knowing that governments had lied to us or covered up truths to protect their own? These types of questions consider me to look into wether knowing ALL information is a for the better or worse. Are we better of without it?

I think that society has created this protective system for its internet users, keeping truths that could dismantle the structure of society in hidden places. Only those with the authoriy to access this information can truly know what goes on. If information was free, would those such as hackers stil fight against technology? Or would they give up, feeling they have nothing to uncover anymore. I think that hackers would stil exist in this internet world of free information. There needs to be some sort of punch to the systems built in society. I mean by this, that there needs to be a challange and those who are rebelious for society to function the way it is. If we were rid of hackers and those who competed with the structural order, then how would culture change and how would we evolve?
Who would have thought that hacktivism would have taken over from marches and standoffs like we saw in the 60's and 70's. Now we see more peaceful protests, even those they have begun to disappear over time. We need these rebels of society in order to challenge the norm, in this case, the internet. We see in this photos, the changing nature of activism from a time of industrialization to a time of technology. Has activism create a new meaning within society as it has become more internet based?

Email and MSN are the 'victims' of Facebook

About 5 years ago, the central communication vehicles used through the computer were MSN and Email. If you wanted to send a friend an invitation to a birthday or event, a colourful email would have been sufficient enough. Or you could advertise the event and its details in your MSN display name, for all of your contacts to see. If you had pictures to share from vacation or updates about your journey from traveling in Japan, for example, a simple email would be the easiest way to do so. Sitting in your college dorm room, talking over MSN and sending joke emails to your friends was highly common.

When the most popular Internet communication site Facebook was created, this need for emailing on a daily basis seemed to diminish for the college and university crowd. From the daily emails one would receive from their friends, to chatting on MSN with peers, there seemed to be a shift in how frequently these were used. Facebook allows for the combination of both email and MSN, creating the next advancement in online communication. Posting photos regularly and sending private messages on Facebook, replaced much of the functions of Email. People could more thoroughly communicate and keep track of their friends and events.

Looking back to when events were sent online via Email, Facebook has introduced a way to create events that can be sent to hundreds of individuals at once. Through the easy layout of creating such events in Facebook, the detailed time consuming invite of an Email is no longer used. We live in a society of fast paced information and look for the simplest route to get what we want and produce the results we want. If I need to get a hold of a friend or simply send a document, Facebook allows this in a much more efficient and less time consuming manor.

As for MSN, which allowed for instant conversations through private messaging, the addition of 'Facebook chat' seems to have replaced this. It is as if we have our email, blog and MSN all in one online tool. Seeing as an individual can simply Facebook Chat instead of logging on to find out who is online, makes it easy to use and multitask with other activities.

Is this notion of Facebook truly taking over the roles of MSN and Email? Is our society, which is based on immediacy the reason for these constant changes among online communication? Will Email and MSN cease to exist in some near future?