social networking services and other new digital media have profound implications for democracy,

It has become  evident that social networking services  and other new digital media have profound implications for democracy, public institutions and the rule of law.

Employing the concept of hyperreality to critique (among other aspects of information technology) the way in which online social networks may subvert or displace organic social realities by allowing people to “offer one another stylized versions of themselves for amorous or convivial entertainmentrather than allowing the fullness and complexity of their real identities to be engaged.

such communication can leave us resentful and defeated” when we are forced to return from their “insubstantial and disconnected glamour” to the organic reality which with all its poverty inescapably asserts its claims on us” by providing tasks and blessings that call forth patience and vigor in people.

Many argue that online social environments are themselves ethically deficient:

Those who become present via a communication link have a diminished presence, since we can always make them vanish if their presence becomes burdensome. 

 This immobile attachment to the web of communication works a twofold deprivation in our lives. It cuts us off from the pleasure of seeing people in the round and from the instruction of being seen and judged by them. It robs us of the social resonance that invigorates our lives

 Heidegger’s (1954 [1977]) substantivist, monolithic model of technology as a singular, deterministic force in human affairs. This model, known as technological determinism, represents technology as an independent driver of social and cultural change, shaping human institutions, practices and values in a manner largely beyond our control