Netizenship – you old fuddy-duddy. It is a new concept. I found out about it in the Jakarta Post. It said local politicians and netizens were busy commenting on an interview Harrison Ford had done.
But what exactly is a netizen?
Netizen is not in any dictionary yet. So Wikipedia must be our guide. Netizens it says are cybercitizens. So presumably these folk are citizens of Cyberspace
Where the dictionary does help is defining citizenship. Collins’ Dictionary tells us that citizenship is: “The fact of belonging to a community because you live in it, and the duties and responsibilities that brings”.
So whether you live in Sacramento City, Shanghai or Sao Paulo you can belong to the cyber community.
What are the duties and responsibilities that this brings?
None. None. Absolutely none.
That is what makes netizens so corrosive of the influence of governments, companies and all institutions.
So watch out!