For who and from what is a network liberating?

In the context of the question:
What gets liberated or controlled, in different networks?


Social networking sites are virtual domains of sociality, where social time is transformed into digital space. A virtual, digital space, where millions of users place fragments of their everyday activities, opinions, feelings and experiences, turning them all voluntarily into information of the form that each medium receives. A photo, a "like," a map of a daily route produced by GPS, a comment in 140 characters.

It is a cliché that the Internet is "liberating" and that social networking platforms guarantee equality to their users in terms of expression. It is also argued that new networked media have overcome the emotional and intellectual decline of “traditional media”, e.g. the TV.

Of course, our TV is not dumped in the trash yet. Instead, it is still part of home furniture in the corner of the living room, or the bedroom, having established its value over the years. Remains active in the background, warmly mind-distracting, without expecting anything, just showing its program with confidence. If we compare our TV with our computer, in the first case, we are in front of a screen, holding the remote control, while in the second case we are again in front of a screen, but our hands are on the keyboard. The big difference is when we become active Internet users; it feels that we are both receivers and transmitters. Is that so?

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