I was chatting with a friend and he raised, in my opinion, an extremely valid point about how many bloggers, in discussing social issues, usually do so on behalf of the less privileged because most bloggers are probably of a relatively high socio-economic background. There is a lack of online participation coming from those who are really under-privileged.

It is a fair statement to say that most bloggers are of a certain level of socio-economic status. To be able to afford Internet access, have the technical know-how to maintain a blog as well as to be able to express oneself coherently using the written word certainly says something about the background of the typical blogger. However, I do think that it is perhaps not exactly a bad thing that bloggers are speaking on behalf of the less privileged.

This is because those who are “less privileged” are most likely not able to express themselves eloquently enough. Of course, that should not be an excuse not to participate but I think that these underprivileged group might think of themselves as being too inferior and not dare to participate as a result. Whatever the case is, their voice has to be heard, be through themselves or through people who are more privileged than them.

And of course, if we maintain the perspective that the underprivileged should be speaking up for themselves, then our parliament should reserve some places for the coffeeshop uncle, the taxi driver and the refuse collector. I think that would be really interesting (and my idealist streak will say that’s real representativeness). :mrgreen: