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The above-mentioned are two affirmative examples of the use of new, digital
media technology in the formation of social communities and networks and a
recreation of a virtual public sphere. While Second Life is a virtual world of alter
egos, which is a reflection of “real” world practices, Facebook is a network which
mainly serves to maintain already established connections in the “real” world.
However, there are also limitations to this type of social communication in terms of
access. As Jan van Dijk argues, there are four kinds of barriers to successful access to
the above-mentioned potentials offered by digital media:
1. Lack of elementary digital experience caused by lack of interest, computer
anxiety, and unattractiveness of the new technology (‘mental access’);
2. No possession of computers and network connections (‘material access’);
3. Lack of digital skills caused by insufficient user-friendliness and inadequate
education or social support (‘skill access’);
4. Lack of significant usage opportunities (‘usage access’)
(van Dijk, 2003: 315-316).
In a contemporary world, these limitations are connected to segmentation along
the divisions of age, urban or rural settings, class, etc. In addition to the specific type
of knowledge (“skill access”) necessary in order to fully exploit the potentials of this
technology, a new lingua franca version of the English language emerges as a must if
one wants to participate in the – so often pointed out – potentials of the Internet,
namely the supra-national, global communication possibilities.
Concluding remarks
Media users: from readership to co-creators
Perhaps the analogy drawn between the period of eighteenth century and
contemporary societies conducted by Comaroff and Comaroff (1999) is useful to
explain the new forms of “community building” that occur today. They point out the
similarities of the crises that societies were faced with in these two historical periods,
such as the crises of family, the transformation of the economy and the crises of the
legitimization of state power. In the eighteenth century, with the repressiveness of the
ancient regime, critical attention was given to the proper relationship between rulers
and the rights of their subjects, between society and authority (Comaroff and
Comaroff, 1999: 9). At that time, a new bourgeois class appeared, and the tension it
provoked had an important impact on the social and economic spheres of life.
As for the present time, the nation state is, once again, changing in its essence, with
the emergence of supranational entities and the fight to preserve some of its power by
showing monopolistic tendencies. In the same way, the economy and the market have
outstripped the functional capacities of the state with the newly emerged neoliberal,
globalized form of capitalism (Comaroff and Comaroff, 1999: 12-13). In these
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