Unlike in Syria and Egypt, where the blogging movement was to some extent an extension of a relatively active political life, the Jordanian blogging movement found its roots in a rapidly developing IT sector, and a growing “Elitism” in the society, be it of the intellectual or materialistic flavor. This, I am afraid, had resulted in a somewhat impotent blogging movement on the developmental and political levels.
Reforms, according to Marx, and more importantly common logic, start when specific forms of consciousness begin evolving and subsequently pervading the society. Social media as a whole, and blogging in particular, have the potential to accelerate the forming of such types of consciousness if not give them the impetus to start. At this point it would be appropriate to turn into musing about two distinct, but strongly connected levels of consciousness; personal, and societal.
My experience as a young man tell me that youth in Jordan take personal consciousness for granted, and that is, in my opinion, a special case of a more general pitfall that human beings are prone to. I will not talk much about the problem itself, as I think what I already wrote is pretty much self explanatory, but I want to point to a very simple fact; blogging is a very efficient modern way when it comes to developing consciousness on a personal level.
When you translate what is going on in your mind into written words, you are immediately becoming aware of your thoughts from a more neutral point of view. It does not stop here. The feedback you get in the form of comments, and the “out-of-personality” experience you go through when you read one of the posts or comments you wrote sometime ago, will force you into developing some sense of self scrutiny.
A societal consciousness, on the other hand, would be trickier to define. To avoid losing the main focus of this article I will instead point to certain prerequisites that should be satisfied by a blogging scene if it is to serve in awakening and spreading a type of this consciousness. The first is accessibility. This is restrained by two unrelated constraints: internet availability and the language. I will only comment on the later by saying that posts written in Arabic are more likely to contribute to the forming and evolution of any kind of societal consciousness.
The second prerequisite, second only in order but by no means in importance, is the society awareness of this medium’s uniqueness and capabilities. I am concerned that for the majority of those who are involved in social media, it is perceived as a mere extension, or substitution for the traditional forms of media, in the sense that it is still serving, mainly, as a medium used in propagating and documenting events of interest for people, with a bit of commentary.
I will attribute this, partially, to the charming effect of certain elements that made the whole of social media as a news medium more convenient, less mechanical (or more personal), and more courageous in comparison to the timid forms of media we had been familiar with in Jordan, which resulted in eclipsing the real potential of the this medium in the process. This was exacerbated by some Arabic news website and blogs that quickly rose to fame, and I am afraid that the forms of demagoguery these had contributed thus far had done more damage than helping in this regard.
If blogs are to help in establishing and sustaining this societal consciousness, people should be aware of its cerebration abilities, as much as they are aware of its propagation and storage capabilities. And while I believe that personal consciousness of the bloggers will definitely precede the societal one, I would be extremely cautious to say that the societal consciousness will naturally flow from the personal one. In all reality, I do not even think that social media, the way it is practiced in Jordan, will contribute, by natural means, to building any forms of consciousness, neglecting the very fact that only a fraction of people in Jordan are aware, in the first place, of the existence of such a medium.
In the light of this critique, which is limited by my experiences and cognitive abilities, I would like to invite any entity that is positively interested in social media in general, and the blogging scene in specific into joining efforts, or working separately, whichever is more convenient for them, on restructuring the whole thing in a manner that gives it the necessary freedom to evolve into a major component, if not the backbone, of the personal and societal consciousnesses.
That, I bet, will constitute the first few substantial steps toward building a Jordan that we all want to see and be proud of.
Reforms, according to Marx, and more importantly common logic, start when specific forms of consciousness begin evolving and subsequently pervading the society. Social media as a whole, and blogging in particular, have the potential to accelerate the forming of such types of consciousness if not give them the impetus to start. At this point it would be appropriate to turn into musing about two distinct, but strongly connected levels of consciousness; personal, and societal.
My experience as a young man tell me that youth in Jordan take personal consciousness for granted, and that is, in my opinion, a special case of a more general pitfall that human beings are prone to. I will not talk much about the problem itself, as I think what I already wrote is pretty much self explanatory, but I want to point to a very simple fact; blogging is a very efficient modern way when it comes to developing consciousness on a personal level.
When you translate what is going on in your mind into written words, you are immediately becoming aware of your thoughts from a more neutral point of view. It does not stop here. The feedback you get in the form of comments, and the “out-of-personality” experience you go through when you read one of the posts or comments you wrote sometime ago, will force you into developing some sense of self scrutiny.
A societal consciousness, on the other hand, would be trickier to define. To avoid losing the main focus of this article I will instead point to certain prerequisites that should be satisfied by a blogging scene if it is to serve in awakening and spreading a type of this consciousness. The first is accessibility. This is restrained by two unrelated constraints: internet availability and the language. I will only comment on the later by saying that posts written in Arabic are more likely to contribute to the forming and evolution of any kind of societal consciousness.
The second prerequisite, second only in order but by no means in importance, is the society awareness of this medium’s uniqueness and capabilities. I am concerned that for the majority of those who are involved in social media, it is perceived as a mere extension, or substitution for the traditional forms of media, in the sense that it is still serving, mainly, as a medium used in propagating and documenting events of interest for people, with a bit of commentary.
I will attribute this, partially, to the charming effect of certain elements that made the whole of social media as a news medium more convenient, less mechanical (or more personal), and more courageous in comparison to the timid forms of media we had been familiar with in Jordan, which resulted in eclipsing the real potential of the this medium in the process. This was exacerbated by some Arabic news website and blogs that quickly rose to fame, and I am afraid that the forms of demagoguery these had contributed thus far had done more damage than helping in this regard.
If blogs are to help in establishing and sustaining this societal consciousness, people should be aware of its cerebration abilities, as much as they are aware of its propagation and storage capabilities. And while I believe that personal consciousness of the bloggers will definitely precede the societal one, I would be extremely cautious to say that the societal consciousness will naturally flow from the personal one. In all reality, I do not even think that social media, the way it is practiced in Jordan, will contribute, by natural means, to building any forms of consciousness, neglecting the very fact that only a fraction of people in Jordan are aware, in the first place, of the existence of such a medium.
In the light of this critique, which is limited by my experiences and cognitive abilities, I would like to invite any entity that is positively interested in social media in general, and the blogging scene in specific into joining efforts, or working separately, whichever is more convenient for them, on restructuring the whole thing in a manner that gives it the necessary freedom to evolve into a major component, if not the backbone, of the personal and societal consciousnesses.
That, I bet, will constitute the first few substantial steps toward building a Jordan that we all want to see and be proud of.
Thx haitham 4 the gr8 post,
ReplyDeleteI think there r a number of other factors contributing to the significance of the Jordanian blog "scene", but u highlighted/linked the crucial ones in a neat way :)
I hope the "call" for societal consciousnesses sees light :), tiny steps I guess.
H.
Thanks for the article - from my limited view and experience, it seems like a lot of the interaction aimed at reforming Jordan isn't on blogs but on Twitter. Which is great because it's up to the minute, but unfortunate because it's so hard to have any dialogue in 140 characters.
ReplyDeleteHaitham,
ReplyDeleteThanks =)
Betsy,
You are missing a tiny winy point: how many Jordanians are on twitter or blogging? The most successful reforms were done with the participation of the majority of the population. I do not think that the 700 Jordanian tweeps qualify to be called a majority.
And besides, we need somebody to survey the content of the tweets and blogs, and see how many of them are really of any reforming significance, and how far do they reach.
Nice post.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by consciousness? Do you mean awareness? Let me hope I got that.
Anyway, I think the consciousness-building potential will come after the society is aware/involved in blogging. And I say potential because the widespread participation will not guarantee the building of consciousness, but it is a prerequisite. After you get the participation, you're going to need the participants to be willing/ready to do that, which is in my opinion a far bigger issue.
So basically what I'm saying is that the human factor is more important than the tools used to build consciousness. Correct the human factor, and then any tool would work, in my opinion.
Ehab,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late reply.
Anyways, yes awareness that was.
The human factor is definitely the most important, and I am not saying that all of those who will blog will come to develop such things, but, such an initiative can be the spark, you know, and if for every 100 bloggers, it worked for 5 or 6, that would be better than nothing =)