We’re not in high school anymore, but are we still surrounded by high school cliques? In The Public Sphere, Jurgen Habermas writes about public spheres and how people join together to form a ‘public’. Habermas discusses how the public sphere is “… a domain of our social life in which such things as public opinion can be formed.” Hmmm, it may just be me, but I can say the same about cliques.
A clique is an exclusive group of people who share interest, views, and purposes of behavior. Specifically, a normative clique is often the “primary source of social intersection for the members of the clique, which can affect the values and beliefs of an individual” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/). We’ve been surrounded by cliques since the day we entered elementary school, but never more so than high school. No matter what city you went to high school in, no matter what decade you spent your high school years in, you where surrounded by cliques; you were part of a clique. There were the cheerleaders and jocks, the ‘Goth’ kids in the corner and the chess club members in the back. High school consists of a social class order, with the popular jocks as the elite and the loners at the bottom; and within all these cliques exist another order of power. Sitting atop the group was a leader; one looked up to for advice and knowledge, one who had the power to influence the opinions of those below them. The same, I argue, exists in a public sphere.
A public sphere is an area of social life where people can get together and freely discuss societal problems; there is one public for EACH public sphere. A public sphere can be the group of people that watch a specific news program, the group of people that discuss Grey’s Anatomy on a message board, and yes, even a high school clique. The public of each of these public spheres are influenced and manipulated by the ‘elite’ in their sphere, one whose voices and opinions are louder than the rest.
There are numerous ‘spheres’ that I take part in everyday, but the one media sphere that influences me more than the rest is a blog that I visit at least ten times a day for updates; perezhilton.com. The creator of the blog is the ‘leader’ of this public sphere, one whose opinions influence every reader to his website. But who is the public of this ‘PerezHilton sphere’? The blog receives millions of hits every day, but no group dominates the sphere more so than teenagers, specifically teenage girls. And PerezHilton knows this, that’s why he blogs about famous male actors/models and has ads for popular teenage clothing stores. These are just some ways that just one of the many public spheres in my life influence and manipulate me; what are the ways that manipulate you?
(image from: http://images.starpulse.com/Photos/Previews/breakfastclub01.jpg)
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