Internet: A Public Sphere?

Habermas defines the public sphere as the sphere of private people who join together to form a "public." I find it easier to understand it as an arena where people can get together and freely discuss shared problems and produce solutions.

So as technology has evolved since the public sphere became apparent in the eighteenth century, I find it hard to believe how the internet is under debate as to whether it is a public sphere or not. The internet is a medium available to normal people not just elitists and can provide a many-to-many connection allowing people to discuss matters of public concern in an “unrestricted fashion”. According to Habemas the internet “guarantees the freedom of assembly and association with the freedom to express and publish their own opinion”.  To me this meets my understood criteria of “the public sphere”.

However Mark Poster argues “the technology of the internet shouldn’t be viewed as a new form of public sphere”. He discusses how the internet threatens the government through unmonitorable convosations and mocks private property with the infinite reproducibility of information. However in my opinion it is because of these factors which I feel that the technology behind the internet is on the other hand creating conditions for ideal speech. Although the internet is fragmented there is the availability for using it to talk about private interests, and therefore does provide the basis for a public sphere, it is contrary to Posters arguments that I agree with Habermas that the internet is in fact a ever- increasing public sphere as it is uncensored, open, free, with the availability for anonymity and therefore holds all the qualities which a public sphere should.