The emergence of the internet as a public sphere is recent, and the causes for its emergence have not been fully explored. According to Jurgen Habermas, civic society don't emerge ad hoc, but in particular historical circumstances. One of Habermas' ideas about why a public sphere would emerge is common concern.
According to Wiki, "Domain of common concern: "... discussion within such a public presupposed the problematization of areas that until then had not been questioned. The domain of ‘common concern’ which was the object of public critical attention remained a preserve in which church and state authorities had the monopoly of interpretation. [...] The private people for whom the cultural product became available as a commodity profaned it inasmuch as they had to determine its meaning on their own (by way of rational communication with one another), verbalize it, and thus state explicitly what precisely in its implicitness for so long could assert its authority."
Luckily for us, more and more websites are being dedicated to the analysis of social networks, or in technical talk, SNA. These types of sites use complex sociological techniques to research how the public sphere is being redefined as new technology opens new public spaces. These websites provide a good backbone to discussions of how technology is changing our public interactions.
These types of websites look at things from a macro level. Think some about the micro level, you. How have social networking sites changed the scope of your public sphere? What concerns or issues are most prevalent in the public sphere of online interaction?
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