Blog Prompt #1

Online public spheres have created the appearance of more diverse and active public spheres but I believe they are also flawed. They are undoubtedly public spheres, but I believe their vastness and impersonal approach produce different results than their physical counterparts.

We spend so much time on social media and the internet that it’s hard to avoid feeling constantly engaged in some kind of discourse. I personally have dramatically reduced my internet friends and also regularly unfollow people to reduce political and nonpolitical noise. There's also the group-think that occurs as we are fed back our opinions by the like-minded people we interact with, which leads to no evolution of ideas. The constant regurgitation and bleakness of issues I believe leads to burnt-out and lack of care or extremism.

I consider it noise because I’ve begun to see it as not contributing to tangible solutions. It only seeks to enrage, there is no formal organization to these spheres to turn this angst into anything productive. Without a more formal tangible sphere, everyone is engaging in discourse for their own selfish means—let my opinion be known. If the personal is political it only seems to be furthered through these media channels that enable our narcissism. There is a sense that this is not a community effort but a series of personal opinions being shouted out. Can one effectively care to create social change when they are so distant from their fellow citizens?

I don’t mean to say these sphere can’t be utilized to create effective social change. We’ve seen that when there is clear vision and organization they can be tools to lead the masses to engage in civil discourse and protest. I believe there’s benefit to organization and duality of spheres. Leadership and focusing on a vision can drastically change the discourse that’s happening from complaining to action. Subscribing to a group of people with a singular identity changes the discourse from shouting into the abyss to collaborating with like-minded peers. These organized and disorganized sphere will both breed increased polarization and conflict because their reach is much further than the limits of physical space and communication.

 It is great that more people are able to engage in discourse when they may have been limited by their environments or education, but there is still so much unknown about the repercussions of discourse at this national level. Especially when the discourse feels unguided and highly individualized, it makes me curious to see how it will clash and resolve itself with existing structures.