Expanding the Public Sphere through Computer ... - ResearchGate

CHAPTER 3. TECHNOLOGY & THE PUBLIC SPHERE 55
Further, Hardy (1993) demonstrates how Internet culture is both transformed by
and is transforming software to facilitate using the Internet. New technology has
created a mode of communication formerly unheard of and made it imitate real life
social interaction (such as software allowing “threads” so that both participants
and viewers can simultaneously follow ongoing conversations.) Usenet’s “freeform”
speech allows for a variety of topics and opinions, while at the same time
offering each individual in the community an opportunity to not only voice their
opinion, but contribute to the administration and control of the conversation.
Similarly, Hauben (1995) notes that Usenet’s uncommercialized nature allows
users a mode of communication and discussion unencumbered by the commercial
exploitation evident in traditional modes of mass media. By comparison, Hauben
(1995) notes that Usenet is an “uncensored forum for debate – where many sides
of any issue come into view.” Usenet empowers people to bring to the world
their observations and opinions. Hauben (1995) agrees with Hardy (1993) that
Usenet allows people the ability to work together to create social restrictions and
boundaries, rather than having these restrictions imposed by an outside authority.
Overby (1996) cites the ability of the individual to completely control his or her
identity within the Usenet environment. People who use computer mediated forms
of communication are not restricted by the many social cues apparent in face-toface
contact. These social cues in face-to-face contact often act as invisible boundaries
that separate acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Without such restrictions,
Overby (1996) finds that people behave in Usenet newsgroups and Internet
chat sessions in ways which would not generally be acceptable in face-to-face encounters.
As participants attempt to deal with such behaviors, they find “ideas
of authority and freedom in opposition” when compared to how such behaviors
would be dealt with in the real life. Users are dependent on the cycle of statement
and response and “the community is maintained through rules of netiquette, which
serve to reinforce self-control and self-consciousness.”
By evaluating various definitions of society and culture which make universal
claims such as “every society” or “all cultures,” North (1994) concludes that the
Internet cannot be viewed as an independent society, but rather as a superstructural
society. However, North (1994) asserts that the Internet does “support a
distinct culture of its own.” He writes that the Internet cannot exist as a subculture
of one particular society, but rather exists in a symbiotic relationship with many
mainstream societies. He illustrates that Internet culture shares many elements of
mainstream cultures.