How does Digital Democracy affect you?

OK, so we've covered the basics of democracy and the concept of the Public Sphere. We know that journalists act as a reflector for society and the bourgeoisie, or the 'ruling class', or the government if you prefer. But what has this got to do with the digital world?

Well, as naive, internet obsessed teenagers we don't realise just how much political and topical influence there is on the internet, even on places we consider to be quite personal such as Facebook. I've pointed out countless times in this blog how influential the internet is and dependent we are as a society on technology as a whole, however we really don't realise how much we depend on them for literally everything.

According to Forbes, Mark Zuckerburg has claimed there are over 1 billion Facebook users. It's hard to find someone in contemporary UK without a profile, granting they're under 70 years old. We don't realise how much time we spend on Facebook, as soon as I turn on my laptop my fingers get a mind of their own and immediately tap on to Facebook without me even thinking about it.



Although Facebook is plainly a social networking site, it's developed into a place for news and topical discussion, with Facebook pages and groups being made almost instantly in discussion of a certain topic. For example, on March 5th 2012, this video was put onto YouTube and linked onto Facebook. Within minutes there were thousands of views and shares. These statistics show that within a week the video had over 100million views, making it the fastest ever video to reach this target. The video was seriously enlightening as personally I was completely unaware of Kony and what went on in the African countries, and I honestly felt empowered to do something. But what could I do? The fact is that because of the flexibility and broadness of social media, the video and therefore the issue was brought to the attention of the world, and pressure was put on to the top dogs to do something about it.


Unfortunately, KONY 2012 never really stayed around for long. I got plenty of Facebook event invites made my activists in my local area wanting to stage marches and sleep outs in support of the cause. This again shows how digital democracy and social networking combine together to create a physical reaction.

We all get annoyed when our 'friends' on Facebook rattle on about a political event or figure currently in the media because they may want to seem intelligent and attentive, or they may just be looking for attention, but fact is that social media sites the Internet in general has opened up a new space for sharing and for discussion, and not just about funny cat videos. Things like e-petitions are actually used in political movements now, simply because of the convenience and ease of them. This just goes to show how digital democracy affects reality and builds an accessible bridge between the public and the politics.





References/Read More

1 billion Facebook users: http://www.forbes.com/sites/limyunghui/2012/09/30/1-billion-facebook-users-on-earth-are-we-there-yet/
Kony statistics: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/apr/20/kony-2012-facts-numbers
E-petitions: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19266497