{"id":258,"date":"2017-08-13T22:38:32","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T05:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/?p=258"},"modified":"2017-09-07T17:07:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T00:07:44","slug":"if-you-cant-play-nice-online-ill-take-your-toys-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/if-you-cant-play-nice-online-ill-take-your-toys-away\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Can\u2019t Play Nice (online) I\u2019ll Take Your Toys Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In 1983, political scientist and historian <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benedict_Anderson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Benedict Anderson<\/a> coined the phrase <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details?id=MZyD5SVA6LkC&amp;source=productsearch&amp;utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&amp;utm_medium=SEM&amp;utm_campaign=PLA&amp;pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjw8b_MBRDcARIsAKJE7lkeMhIBWGf4ZIIw_pTDcobA7ZvPBWzeH3XNjCNg4AKnRZKBtgDZWB8aAuvREALw_wcB&amp;gclsrc=aw.ds&amp;dclid=CKWW67nl1dUCFQ5mfgodh2UH7w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Imagined Communities<\/a>\u2014 \u201ccommunities that are facilitated through communication technology, but that must be imagined, as the members are not capable of meeting each other in real interaction.\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\n(Anderson, via Hodson <em>The Gutenburg Man<\/em>, PCOM 530)<\/p>\n<p>Anderson was keenly focused on Nationalism and the idea that citizens of a nation live in what is ostensibly an imagined community. We can\u2019t possibly know every person in our country (the residents of Vatican City might be the global exception here). As Canadians we have a deep kinship, and are brought together (all motley 36 million of us) through an almost inexorable yet indescribable awareness of what it means to \u201cbe Canadian\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0I6A0Z2y28g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On the internet there are a myriad of Imagined Communities, we need only look at information sharing sites like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/\">reddit<\/a> or social media hubs like Facebook (in particular Facebook Groups), or track a lowly #hashtag to find subsets and online communities.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, and running alongside Anderson\u2019s theory of Imagined Communities, is the ongoing discourse of Public Spheres, and the web as a \u201cDigital Public Sphere\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>If we can agree that a public sphere is:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cA domain of our social life where such a thing as public opinion can be formed [where] citizens . . . deal with matters of general interest without being subject to coercion . . . [to] express and publicize their views.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211; Habermas, (from McKee, 2005)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Then <em>absolutely<\/em> the web is a public sphere.<\/p>\n<p>But is it really? The web is filled with all this camaraderie and inclusion, but what about all the trolls? Where does bullying fit in?<\/p>\n<p>This past weekend the US, and much of the world, watched in stunned and sickened awe as hundreds of white men (and a handful of women) marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, spouting intolerance and neo-Nazism in a thinly-veiled (and I mean thinner than the chinny-chin hair on the proverbial pig) \u201cfreedom march\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l8fjvfmnMqc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Setting aside the mind-numbingly grotesque and asinine actions of the \u201cfreedom marchers\u201d, let\u2019s look at the reactions within digital public spheres and our &#8220;imagined communities&#8221;. One need only slip down the slope of a reddit thread related to Charlottesville to find interjections by trolls about any manner of inappropriate subjects. Some are insensitive, some are ignorant, and some are randomly pornographic or just cruel.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Esther_Dyson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Esther Dyson<\/a> states, \u201cUnfortunately, as a society we haven\u2019t learned \u2018Net Literacy\u2019 yet.\u201d It should be noted that our dear Esther (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/edyson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@edyson<\/a>) wrote those words almost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, it seems we still haven\u2019t sorted out how to read, write, learn and engage online.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>References<\/p>\n<p>McKee, Alan. (2005).\u00a0<em>Public Sphere, The: An Introduction<\/em>. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 13 August 2017, from &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.myilibrary.com\/?ID=41484\">http:\/\/www.myilibrary.com?ID=41484<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1983, political scientist and historian Benedict Anderson coined the phrase Imagined Communities\u2014 \u201ccommunities that are facilitated through communication technology, but that must be imagined, as the members are not capable of meeting each other in real interaction.\u201d (Anderson, via Hodson The Gutenburg Man, PCOM 530) Anderson was keenly focused on Nationalism and the idea [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":300,"featured_media":266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10,1],"tags":[19,16,17,15,18],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-assignments","category-random","category-uncategorized","tag-communication","tag-habermas","tag-pcom-530","tag-public-sphere","tag-royal-roads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/300"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/j2hill\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}