Designing the public sphere: Information technologies and the politics of mediation

Abstract

After a few decades of living with Information and Communication Technologies, we have got so much used to their presence in our daily lives, that we hardly realize that the societal and cultural revolution they are causing has only just begun. While most discussions still focus on privacy issues and on the impact of social media on interpersonal relations, a whole new generation of ICTs is currently entering the world, with potentially revolutionary impacts that require careful analysis and evaluation. Many everyday objects are currently being equipped with forms of ‘ubiquitous computing’ or ‘ambient intelligence’. At the same time, ‘augmented reality’ technologies are rapidly gaining influence. ICTs will result in smart environments, and new social relations. Rather than merely assessing and criticizing these developments ‘from the outside’, we must to learn to accompany them critically ‘from within’. The public sphere requires ‘technologies of the self’: the capability to understand technological mediations, to take them into account in technological design, and to shape our existence in interaction with them. The real choice is not between accepting of rejecting new ICTs, but between critical engagement and powerless opposition.