As given to us by Lincoln Dahlberg, the four positions or categories of the types of people who use the internet for social, political, and business interactions are as follows: the Liberal-Individualist, the Deliberative, the Counter Publics, and the Autonomist-Marxist. Each position has a unique identity and has significant proponents and consequences, but it is interesting to look into the world to find groups of people who fit into these positions well.
The Liberal-Individualist uses the interet and web to seek out information for themselves. They consider themselves to be the best decision maker for their own lives and prefer to base these decisions on facts and information they have found themselves through research. Dahlberg writes, "The free transmission of information is necessary here for the liberal-individualist subject to make their strategic cost-benefit calculations and choices. As a result, the position aims to promote and protect the 'rights' of this subject to freely partake in communication and to encourage the provision of systems that allow for the maximization of information flows and the registration of choices." In class we discussed many political groups who feel into these positions, but I think that Dahlberg makes a great point when he brings in the economic view of the liberal-individualist. I would offer that the magazine, Consumer Report, bases their entire existence on the reliance on the liberal-individualists in our midst. When someone wishes to buy an expensive appliance, car, technological gadget, they usually go online to search for the best item they can purchase with the most reliable ratings, reviews, and benefits.
Next comes the Deliberative approach, who utilize the internet's capacity to share information with others. They prefer not to make their decisions on their own, but to engage in conversations and seek out others' opinions before forming ones themselves. Dahlberg writes this non this subject, "The democratic subject here is seen as developing from out of rational deliberation, rather than being pre-defined as in the liberal-individualist position. Such deliberation is understood to constitute a rational public sphere I which private individuals are trans-formed into publicly oriented democratic subjects interested in the 'common good'. The result is critically informed public opinion that can scrutinize and guide the official decision making processes." I tend to disagree here with Dahlberg, because in my experience the people who go searching on public forums and discussing their ideas before making up their mind on whatever decisions they feel they need to make, they are the people who are not vocal about their opinions since they feel they do not own them. The liberal-individualist however has full knowledge of why he/she made their decision and can respond to criticism with convincing rhetoric and logic. I think that those friends of ours who constantly start political or religious "debates" on Facebook or constantly are accessing social media like Twitter and Instagram are the people fall into this category most distinctively.
The third position is the Counter Publics group whom are the ones that the world has excluded and therefore find ways on the internet to express themselves and organize some type of resistance to the exclusion that they feel. Dahlberg thinks the two forms of Counter Public Protest are Electronic Civil Disobedience and Digital Culture Jamming. I want to compare illegal immigrants and their use of the internet and social media to schedule "marches on the capitals" and other such civil disobedience movements. In my home state, the illegal immigrants organized marches on our state capital, showcasing the exact way the internet can be used to organize marches. Many organizations argued that they should round all of these illegal immigrants up at these actual marches, which makes one question the wisdom of organizing these marches. But, nonetheless, many people utilize the internet to organize acts of civil disobedience.
Finally, the Autonomist Marxist position, which combines all of the other three positions into one. The self-organization and focus on indivialism is akin to the Liberal-individualist. The direct participation and inclusion aspect comes from the Deliberative position. Then the working outside of government, legal, political, and economic spheres hales from the Counter Publics. Combining all of these positions into one position seems to be a wise use of the best aspects of all of these categories. But, the example we discussed in class was that of the Occupy Movement, which is apt but also not something to aspire to. Information being freely shared is quite a hot topic these days, and since I don't care to plunge myself into a debate like those Deliberatives and their over-sharing on social media sites, I will stop now.
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