Social media may be changing citizens’ perception of the public sphere itself

Evidence

If participants’ experiences and perceptions of what were hitherto called publicness and the political public sphere were to change, affecting the customary conceptual distinction between private and public spheres, this would necessarily have far-reaching consequences for the self-understanding of internet consumers as citizens. For the moment we lack the data to test this hypothesis; but the indications prompting such a hypothesis are troubling enough. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 43

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the 1962 Structural Transformation thesis; the recipient-side shift in perception echoes Adorno’s concern that mass media reshape consciousness. — connects to: Digital media blur the private-public boundary even though its structural basis persists — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 22; Social media platforms simulate a public sphere they now merely exploit. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 580; Digital communication technologies have fundamentally changed public communication, reshaping perception of space and interaction — The Influence Of Communication Technology On Human Relations (+6 more)
• QUESTION: Habermas admits the hypothesis is currently untested — worth watching for empirical work attempting to measure changes in public-sphere perception.

Related

• Digital media blur the private-public boundary even though its structural basis persists (similarity 0.86)
• Social media’s fragmentation and boundary-dissolution combine to undermine the national public sphere’s integrating power (similarity 0.85)
• Social media spaces create an anonymous intimacy that is neither public nor private (similarity 0.83)
• Social media platforms simulate a public sphere they now merely exploit. (similarity 0.82)
• Mass daily news created the modern public sphere and public opinion (similarity 0.82)
• Digital media seemed to finally fulfill the bourgeois public sphere’s equality claim (similarity 0.81)
• Digital proliferation collapsed the primary-secondary definer boundary (similarity 0.81)
• Social media grew in a civic void and then accelerated that void (similarity 0.81)
• Digital platforms are not media in the traditional sense (similarity 0.79)
• Social media originally appealed through collective joy, now threatened by commercial management (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Social media platforms simulate a public sphere they now merely exploit. #qualifies (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 580
• Social media constitutes a contextual monoculture that destroys meaning-bearing spatial context #expands (0.80) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 548
• Social media fracturing produces fragmented collective time held together by affective endorsement #expands (0.78)
• Future-oriented discourse masks the loss of a genuine public sphere #expands (0.75) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 765