Snapchat 😉
My public sphere is a Snapchat group chat with my girl gang. This includes all my close best friends from school. Well what is a public sphere? Research on the public sphere was first enlightened by German theorist Jurgen Habermas when he wrote a book called The Structural Transformation of the public sphere. It can be described as a “social space in which different opinions are expressed, problems of general concern are discussed, and collective solutions are developed communicatively.” (Wessler and Freudenthaler, 2018) This statement directly addresses exactly what goes on inside a groupchat of general communication. Our group chat doesn’t have a specific topic,like a university chat designed for specific purposes of education communication. It is purely for the discussion of each individual’s experiences and encounters of past, present and future.
Snapchat is a versatile messaging app that anyone is able to download onto a mobile phone which enables users to exchange videos and pictures, (labeled snaps) that are meant to disappear once they’ve been opened. Snapchat is highly popular because it has an aspect of fun and creativity. The idea is to take a ‘snap’ write a message and then add different filters, stickers or even play games . Snapchat has innovative editing tools as well as entertainment features like news, magazines and quizzes. All these functions allow for a range of communication possibilities in my public sphere. The news feature makes understanding world events so much more accessible than reading the newspaper or news broadcasts on tv for our generation. This means general discussion and opinions on these events are shared often whether they are political, social or cultural.
Because snapchat messages are designed to disappear, this can lead to miscommunication and even misinterpretation as you are not able to go back, reread or reevaluate what a person has said to better understand the encoded message. Due to this the ‘girls’ group chat has had a fair few arguments because one person has misinterpreted what the other has said, which develops a whole other issue and topic of discussion.
The media has a major influence on my public sphere, because it is a social media account the basis of its invention is media communication. Snapchats media output is large due to its noninvasive way of navigating content into your life that relates to you as an individual all the while interacting with your friends. Is Snapchat the perfect public sphere? Not yet, but it may be on the way there because of its ability to enable users to consume and create media content. I am able to view multiple media dimensions, talk to friends, discuss issues and be entertained all in the comfort of my ‘own’ public sphere.
References
H.Wessler, R.Freudenthaler, ‘Public Sphere’ in Oxford Bibliographies (2018) viewed 19 April 2020
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841-0030.xml
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