Week 1: Google Trends

One question that developed after our discussion on Thursday was about, the impact the internet tearing down the walls of the private sphere, has had on our society. In The Public Sphere: An Introduction, McKee describes Liberal societies as follows. "Liberal forms of social organization are characterized by a commitment to the idea that individuals should have a private realm of their life, over which they are allowed some control." (pg:9/p:2) Yet as technology has progressed in recent times, we are seeing further into the private lives of individuals. One effect of this penetration into the private is the restructuring of social norms. In June of 2008 this was shown, when an attorney argued that the google trends search results in a community for pornographic material were evidence enough to release his client who had been charged of releasing similar content onto the internet. The problem as I see it, with this penetration of the private, is that as people I believe we need to have areas of our life that remain private. Another problem I have is with the information that is presented to us. In Modernity, "Absolute Truth" is idealized. Yet especially on the internet it is far more difficult to discern actual "Absolute Truth", due to it not being filtered or fact checked.