The role of digital culture and its networked nature in ‘a global or even planetary information culture’ (Hand 2008, 15) is viewed by commentators as central to changes in political interaction (Bennet, 2008; Montgomery, 2008; Xenos, 2008; Hand, 2008; Hands, 2011; Poster, 2006). However, the political use of the internet is not represented as without problems, with Hand referring to the dual nature of digital technology as a ‘promise and threat’, ‘utopian and dystopian’ as well as inclusive and exclusive (2008, 16-18), and Hands (2011) recognizing, but arguing against, those who view the internet’s nature as inherently undemocratic. On the negative side, digital culture can be viewed as encouraging unfettered consumerism (Hand 2008, 37) or, as Montgomery reveals, linking political activity with commodification as when companies indulge in ‘cause marketing’ (2008, 32). In this way, the Internet is implicated as an efficient and far-reaching extension of global capitalism (Hand, 33; Hands 31). Further, given that ‘the dominant forces in society are likely to have the most control over the direction in which technology develops[…]primarily capitalist’ (Hands 2011, 29) then there are inevitable fears that digital culture reenacts the panopticon model of social control envisioned by Bentham and, somewhat eerily, predicted by Charles Kingsley speaking of the possibility of technology’s role in political power: ‘I can conceive[…]some future world-ruler sitting at the junction of all railroads, at the centre of all telegraph-wires – a world-spider in the omphalos of his world-wide web’ (1880, 131).
The internet's possible role, then, in global capitalism and political control could result in digital exclusion for those without power or money. The parallels with concerns in education, expressed by John (2003), Harvie (2006) and (Sabri), over commodification's effect on choice for students and for educators, are clear; the dystopian view of technology suggests a top-down control of the internet that can disempower, particularly the 'info-poor' (Hand, 2008, 35).
(Continue with digital activism...)
(Continue with digital activism...)