Publicking/Privating: The Gestural Politics of Digital Spaces

Abstract

The distinction between public and private spheres has become increasingly blurred in the digital age. As more aspects of life move online, where information is potentially visible to anyone, traditional barriers dividing public and private realms dissolve. This creates a default condition of publicness for much online activity. In response, Internet users have developed novel ways of demarcating contexts as more public or more private through “gestures” (Vilém Flusser) that range from literal bodily movements to highly context-dependent and media-specific signs. This essay argues that in digital environments, the notions of “public” and “private” take on active, performative dimensions as verbs — “publicking” and “privating.” Users engage in ongoing yet subtle negotiations to establish “spaces of appearance” (Hannah Arendt) and signify communication as directed toward distinct audiences. The essay criticizes classic theories of the public sphere as inadequate for digital life. It proposes recasting the distinction as fluid and gestural rather than stable and institutional. Although overlooked as trivial, micro-gestures of publicking and privating enable users to perform publicness and privateness in a time in which the public has become an act rather than a place. Studying these fleeting yet meaningful gestures provides insight into how users resist the default publicness of contemporary digital life.