Impacts of the Internet on Civil Society (Essay Sample)

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Impacts of the Internet on Civil Society
The Internet is the most influential technological advancement of the information age. With the emergence of social media in the 21st century, people are now practically connected (Castells 4). Social and digital media under the facilitation of the Internet has merged as logistical tool form mobilization and communication. They have provided individuals with channels through which they can express their opinions and dissent, thus strengthening political culture, political democracy and the welfare of communities. Some of the current global events that express this influence are the political revolutions in Arabian countries and the cultural globalization.
First, social media have resulted in increased protests against state powers by social movements. The most interesting expression of this emerging form of freedom is the sociopolitical practices’ transformation facilitated by the Internet (Frangonikolopoulos and Chapsos 11). As a result of heightened social media technologies, messages do not have to flow only from the minority to the majority, with minimum interactivity, as was the case before the emergence of the internet. Currently, information flow interactively and multi-modally amongst all political stakeholders. By dis-intermediating corporate and government control of communication processes, horizontal communication networks have produced a new landscape of political and social change (Shirky).
Lastly, cultural globalization has been greatly influenced by the increasing use of social media. Globalization and the Internet technology are deeply entangled. The segmentation f time and space as a result of digital communication platforms has a great influence on global interaction irrespective of the discrepancies (Castells). The modern communication methods have been altered by new phenomena such as online communities, participatory journalism and transitional activism structured through social media networks. Globalization has occasioned a rapid progression of social organizations and social relations on the internet; thus influencing the brains and minds of individuals through blogs, online debate forums and ...