Networked Democracy or Not

One of the biggest things that jumped out at me from Saskia Sassen’s lecture was her ideas on the blogosphere and their limitations on just how “neutral” a ground blogs are.  Her stance on the blogosphere is of the belief that even though blogs are set up to be interactive domains, we need to try to understand “how to pick up social logic at work that may distort the technical results that may be inferred from the technology alone (Sassen).”  What she means by this is that even though there is what we perceive to be an unbiased understanding and choices when it comes to blogs, there are still social forces at work that dictate which ones we follow, respond to, and why some are more successful than others. It is similar to how democracy and a free market economy operate, and as such may present the same limitations.

As in democracy, blogs are appealing as they are open to all individuals (with a network connection). The general openness of what you are looking for and what you prefer to follow, allows everyone to participate, and gives followers multiple choices in terms of what they may want. Open access means options to choose from. This is also appealing to the bloggers themselves as they can be as public or private in terms of being found and visited. 

O’Baoill makes very similar connections between democracy and blogging taking note of perhaps another perceived limitation: while the blogosphere is technically inclusive-anyone can start a weblog.  It is the propagation network that serves to privilege some over others (with external relationships a significant factor).  This ties back to not only how businesses become successful, but how business people continue to have new opportunities presented to them and positions offered of them.  The value of networking, making connections, and using those connections to be successful cannot be undervalued.

What I didn’t agree with in Sassen’s comments was here analysis in that given we are so busy, we choose which blogs we want to follow.  We will inherently select the ones that our friends follow, so that we can stay on top of current trends and discussions with them.   While that may be the case with younger bloggers and followers, I believe that one of the appealing parts of blogging has more to do with the privacy associated with it, and the choices that each participant or writer. I do not necessarily it is driven by popularity within social circles, but perhaps more by popularity by themes or content.  Because they are so accessible, bloggers have the option to pursue any interest, not just those that are popular or similar to friends’.